Monday April 28, 2014-Paradise Lake Resort, Nacogdoches TX

We watched the weather last night with interest, since we were on the fringe of the storm areas, but we lucked out and only had some rain and strong winds. Our heart goes out to those in Oklahoma and Arkansas that suffered. We will be driving through Mayflower Ark. one of the areas hit very hard, and should be able to take some good but heartbreaking photos as we travel to the Arkansas rally in Mountain View.

When we stayed at Rayford Crossing, several of the guys and I wanted to take a day trip to Nac to visit the Foretravel factory, so since I am here and have nothing better to do, I took the tour this morning with two other men that are looking to buy one. Not me! I wanted to look but am not changing to a motorhome!

First of all, I never knew the name Foretravel meant anything other than the brand name. The Fore family actually founded the company in 1967 and one of Mr. Fore's grandsons still works here as a salesman. The family has sold out and no longer owns any interest in the company. There are still a few employees working here from the early days. 

Everything built here is custom built to order and no two MH's are alike. The IH series is the top of the line and below that are the Phenix and Nimbus models. All of these are built on chassis' that are built in-house. They are now building one unit for a customer on a Spartan chassis, which is the first one that we looked at. 

That's a big 'ol motor in the rear of this thing. Remember that this is a diesel pusher, so this is looking toward the front. Note also the large receiver hitch on the back, rated for 20,000#. They have customers that tow 30' trailers behind with large, heavy cars and trucks inside.

This is the engine/transmission that is waiting to be installed into a frame. I don't think either will fit into my Ram pickup! 

The hydraulic-operated tag axle.  This is the Spartan chassis that they are building now. It uses traditional jacks for leveling and stabilizing instead of air bags on the Foretravel units.

One of the slide-out units being readied to be installed. Note all of the wires hanging throughout the slide. Each wiring harness has a part number making it much easier to find a replacement part.

One of the air bags used to level and stabilize. Since these motorhomes will weigh in excess of 50,000 pounds when completed and loaded by the customer, these bags are very heavy duty. 

More wiring. You would have to be a pretty good electrician to wire up one of these units. They are all electric, but propane can be added if the customer wishes. 

Waste water is handled through conventional PVC pipes. I noticed that all wiring is bundled together with tie wraps and is very neat and clean. 

A roof, ready to be installed. They mold aluminum for the base and after openings and raceways for wiring and ductwork for heating is run, the roof is covered with fiberglass. I have no experience with a fiberglass roof and can't comment. 

Here is a roof without the fiberglass cap installed. Again, everything is neat and clean. 

A rear cap ready to be installed. Our guide showed us how light the rear cap is, but the fiberglass is very heavy and can withstand a lot of impact. 

Notice the rounded edges for the slide. Also, no cover on the opening between the slide and the body of the coach. The guide told me that there is an air bladder that seals this opening that cannot be seen. It does look nice!

 There is an electric reel for the heavy electric cord and a retractable water hose. I've also seen those very heavy-duty sewer hoses being used and know that they are deluxe and virtually leak proof.

The painted stripes extend onto the slides to make a continuous stripe. This has always been a pet peeve of mine because it makes the unit so much more "finished". 

A residential refrigerator is used, as are other residential fixtures in the kitchen. 

A nicely finished shower. This unit had a bath and a half, which is nice for guests to use. And then, no one has to come into our bedroom to see that Stella hasn't put away my dirty clothes or made up the bed. 

The windshield has no gasket but is actually glued in. No removing the glass to replace appliances or furniture on this baby!

Overall, I was impressed with the construction of Foretravel but then remember, we were told that it takes about 6 months to get one built from the initial ordering to completion. They only produce approximately 30 units a year! And at a starting cost of $1.2 million for an IH model, I'll never own one!  

I was disappointed to hear that they use laminated wood for their cabinets. The guide said that this allows customers to have a nice shiny surface for all surfaces and that they use walnut for construction. I noticed that they used plywood for a shelf in one of the cabinets. I guess they make some plywood out of walnut...

Maybe we can make another trip up here with the guys from Rayford. I'd make the trip again!

So long.

Thursday April 24, 2014-Paradise Lake RV Resort, Nacogdoches TX

We had a very nice day today but it started out too soon. My leg was bothering me and I woke very early from the pain, but soon after getting up and going into the living room, I was back asleep in my chair. 

We are going back over to Center this evening to have supper with Janie and Gail and were being joined by my cousin Linda and her husband Doug who were coming over from Tyler. The four of them were going on a weekend trip to Houston and Dallas so this was my chance to see all of them.

Stella needed to go to the store, so we went to Wal Mart, where I happened to know that there are a lot of Munzees. It's been awhile since I've really played the game and I thought that this will be a good chance to start playing again.

We made the pretty drive to Center and had a very nice visit with Janie and Gail before Doug and Linda arrived. They own a marketing business in Tyler and couldn't leave until after work, but as soon as they arrived, we sat down and had a great meal of barbecued ribs and a pork loin with veggies that was prepared by Janie. The meal was very good but the conversation was even better. It's been a long time since we've been able to sit down to a meal with this part of the family. Our traveling lifestyle is a lot of the cause of this, and I plan to do as much as I can to spend more time with family. 

Janie asked me why I was awake and sending her messages at 4 AM. I told her about my leg issues, and that got me in trouble with her (in a nice way) about not going to a doctor. She reminded me several times during the evening to go get it checked out, and I will when I can, but then when I got home tonight, my leg didn't bother me and I slept through the night with no further pain. I hope it lasts! It's miserable to wake to the pain and not be able to find a comfortable position.

So long.

Wednesday April 23, 2014-Moving day-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park to Paradise Lake RV Resort, Nacogdoches

We were up by 7 AM and drinking our coffee before starting to get ready to leave. It wasn't long before we were hooking the truck to the trailer and pulled out about 9:30. We like these short driving days and only made one quick pit stop, arriving here in Nacogdoches (Nac from now on!).

After a pretty quick set-up I called my Aunt Janie to let them know that we had arrived and made arrangements to go over to Center where they live for supper. We sat outside on their patio and after a glass of wine, we drove down to the square to eat at Margarita's restaurant. 

We returned to Janie's house to continue our visit and had lots of great conversation about family and friends. It was so nice to chat, but the time seemed to fly by and we had to come back over to Nac to take care of our pups. We are planning to spend more time tomorrow with Janie and family. Should be fun!

So long.

Monday April 21, 2014-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

Today we met Tony and Erika and Dave and Nancy at the Panda Buffet in downtown Terrell. Tony only got about 50 minutes to eat-he's the high school band director- but the rest of us stayed and talked for about 3 hours! 

We discussed the tee shirts that Erika has been working on for us to review and talked about colors and designs. She is going to work on them some more and submit some new ones soon. We talked about the rally itself and got some good input from Dave and Nancy.

We compared notes and discovered that Dave and Nancy will be going to the same rallies that we will be attending, so we tentatively made plans to travel together. I think it could be fun to caravan to several rallies. 

We came home to find that there was severe weather forecast for our area this evening. It began to rain lightly but luckily we never got the heavy weather that had been predicted. We missed Ian's ball game because of the weather. I'm sure they got rained out but we haven't talk to them to verify.

We have decided to stay here for another day to get our schedule back on track. We have been working on our travel plans and will get them completed in another day or so. Then we can share it with Dave and Nancy and make some plans. This is shaping up to be a good summer.

So long.

Saturday April 19, 2014-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

It's still chilly enough to use the fireplace in the morning, but I can tell that warm weather will be here soon. When we left Durant a couple of days ago, I work my jeans while packing up to leave but as soon as we arrived here in Terrell, I pulled them off and put on shorts and have worn shorts outside since then. 

We drove over to Jennifer and Jay's house in Garland for some burgers this afternoon. Jay has done a good job of remodeling the house, taking his time and doing things right. He added a large covered deck on the back that we put to good use today. 

 Here is a picture of me and the kids. In our traveling lifestyle we don't get to spend enough time with family but we do the best we can.

Ian with his Pop. My maternal grandfather was called Pop by everyone and Stella's Dad was called Poppy. Tyler and Cameron call me PePaw, so I answer to either name. I'm glad that Jennifer chose to tell Ian to call me Pop because I want to preserve the name in our family. I have asked Tyler and Cam to change what they call me and they do when they remember to, but most of the time they revert to PePaw and I am good with that.

Jennifer made us some beer Margaritas that we had never tried before. They are made with only four ingredients, 12 oz. limeade, 12 oz. beer (she used Dos Equis but any brand should work), 12 oz. 7-Up and although the recipe calls for 12 oz. Tequila, she used less. Add some salt (to taste) around the rim of the glass and this makes a very good Margarita. Even with less tequila, I could feel the effect of one drink, so be careful. After finishing my drink, we ate our burgers and then sat around visiting for a couple of hours to make sure that the alcohol was gone before driving home-ever the cop!!

We had a very nice visit with them, reliving some of the stories of our past and their childhood and we all had a lot of laughs. 

So long.

Friday April 18, 2014-Moving day-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK to Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

My back has been bothering me for the last week or so, but it was better last night. It was just a dull ache all day but at night, when I tried to sleep, it kicked into high gear. It became impossible to sleep because I couldn't find a comfortable position. I tried everything, including taking a large dose of Tylenol but nothing really helped. I usually got a couple of hours sleep early in the morning, but it wasn't very restful. I got more sleep last night than any other since I've been down. 

We were up before 7, having some coffee on our last morning here in Durant. We really weren't in a big hurry because we are just going to Terrell. We changed parks from the Plantation Place in Sunnyvale to the Bluebonnet Ridge in Terrell. We went by Sunnyvale the other day when we went to watch Ian play ball and found that the park is on a very narrow and windy road with low tree branches and very tight spaces at the park. Sunnyvale must be an upscale area, judging by the big houses and manicured lawns. 

We pulled out right about 10AM and made good time all the way into Plano where we found more road construction and had a brief slowdown. The only problem with the construction zone is that they have very narrow lanes but we made it through without problem and soon we turned off onto the big loop (IH-635) and then soon onto I-20. We arrived at the park just after noon, for approximately a 2 hour drive. We made good time because we didn't have to stop!

We did have a bit of a problem here with the park. When Stella called to get our reservation, they took the credit card number and promised that it was just to have it on record. Stella alertly checked our account and found that they had charged the entire bill. It was only yesterday that all this happened, so we weren't too concerned about it but when we got here, she found that they had kept the original charge and made another one. They explained that they are using a new software program and will get it straightened out as soon as they can. We'll see...

We have stayed here several times before and we like the park. We especially liked the way they found us a site, and hopefully this billing problem will be taken care of. We'll see...

So long.

Tuesday April 15, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

It's still cold up here in Oklahoma, although it's not freezing or snowing. We heard from one couple that was here for the rally that went to Missouri and got snowed on, another couple went home to Oklahoma City and were hailed on, and heard from two friends in Michigan that are getting snowed on. 

We went to Garland to watch Ian play T-ball this evening.

He's a really good batter. Every time he was at bat he hit the ball into the outfield. 

 He is a pretty good fielder too. He stops the ball well and throws well also.

It's a lot of fun to watch these 6 year olds play T-ball. They don't play all that well yet, but they have a lot of enthusiasm and love to play. 

Jennifer and Jay took us to a Mexican restaurant for a late supper. The food was good but not great but we enjoyed our time with the kids and Ian most of all. We'll be spending more time with them this weekend and look forward to it.

So long.

Monday April 14, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

Well, the rally ended yesterday with most of the people leaving. Some were gone or in the last processes of leaving when I went outside but I did manage to talk to a lot of folks before they left. We all still hate the last day when the party breaks up. It was raining and cool this morning, so we visited between showers.

There were probably 13 or so rigs that remained and some went to the casino for breakfast and to gamble and later in the afternoon most of us went to the Roma's Italian Restaurant for supper. We had some nice conversations with the people around us and we learned that one couple will be going to a Texas Boomer rally near Johnson City next weekend. Wow, small world!

Today almost all of the remaining people left for home or their next destination. Again, some left before I could talk to them and tell them goodbye but we saw most. Our friends Hoyt and Mary, who are the new Indiana Chapter Leaders, stayed for another day. They are here in their big over-the-road truck, as they are truck drivers. They had meetings to go to over the weekend, so when they came here, they parked their truck with it's large sleeping unit on the back and rented a car to go to their mandatory meetings. They decided to stay another day to relax, since they had been so busy over the weekend. We went to eat supper with them at the Whataburger in Durant. We had a nice, cheap meal and very good visit. We haven't had much time to spend with them.

It was freezing cold this morning and the wind was blowing hard again. We're all beginning to think that this winter will never end. Stella spent some time a few days ago putting our winter coats and jackets away but had to drag some back out today. At least we avoided any tornadoes that are common in this area in the spring.

We're staying here for a few days because we can't get into the next park that we're going to. I learned on Facebook that our friends Warren and Judy are coming here on their way home to Iowa. I hope we'll get to spend some time with them while they're here. 

So long.

Saturday April 12, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

The Oklahoma chapter prepared a very good breakfast casserole for us this morning. There was a good turnout and everyone seemed to enjoy their breakfast. We sat around chatting until the door prize giveaways began. They had several larger items that we had paid for raffle tickets to try to win. Of course, we didn't win but then we never do, so it was expected.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post about a speaker that Larry had found. US Army Colonel Jmes Wilhite spoke about his assignment in Afghanistan. He had retired from the Army as a Sergeant but had been called back and assigned a rank of full bird Colonel. His assignment had been to go to Afghanistan to build a college that was patterned after West Point as well as other smaller schools and hospitals. Col. Wilhite was a very interesting speaker but there were mixed reactions to his talk. It is hard to argue with educating children and giving higher education to teens, but how long will this go on after the United States pulls out. What condition will the buildings be in? Our country is broke financially, so how can we afford this? No easy answers here, but I still enjoyed his speech. 

So long.

Friday April 11, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

I was so proud of the trailer because we had gone through so much cold weather and ice and as far as I could tell, nothing had broken but the water inlet valve that had been replaced at the Ron Hoover Oasis while we stayed there. I was convinced that the water leak that was found yesterday was from the ice maker water line that is very susceptible to leaking after a freeze. I was so certain that I went out yesterday and bought another line to replace the leaky one today. The only problem was...when someone got into the underbelly, the leak was coming from the back of the water heater on the front door side of the trailer. The ice maker line was found to be intact but had some nasty-looking green "stuff" in it, so it will still get replaced.

 You can see the white plastic line that we thought was the culprit. It was not but will get replaced anyway.

 Here are Dan H and Dan M working on removing the water heater. There was no way to access the back of the WH from this side of the trailer. You can see my slide tray rolled out part way and there is a battery tray and storage area between the underbelly storage and the heater.

 The area to Dan's right is the storage area. We removed the storage box for access but there was simply not enough room to do much. Note also the professional tools used, a plastic cutting board and a spatula, trying to get the water heater out. All that Styrofoam insulation on the sides and top was the problem. 

 Making progress. As you can see, there were wires on both sides of the heater and a propane line that came in on the other side.

 Almost got it out! 

 It was believed that the leak was at the plastic check valve at the top of the water heater. This is a common place for leaks and as you will see in another photo, there was a rust stain in the Styrofoam so it may have been leaking for awhile.

 Dan is working on cleaning out the threads where the check valve screws into the back. 

 More digging into the threads. Some sort of adhesive is also used to seal, and after about three years of being in place with lots of hot water flowing through it, it took a lot of work to clean it out. Dan ended up going to several stores trying to find a tap to clean out the threads. 

 While Dan was gone, trying to find the tap, Jim started running the new water line. You can see the new blue line that will soon be up and running. 

 Running the new line under the slide out. We lucked out in that the water line that ran under the floor was pretty easy to get to. Not to mention how lucky I was to have friends that are experienced in this work and would do it for me. All I had to do was fetch tools, turn water on and off and record everything with my camera.

It didn't take too long until the line was in place. We couldn't check it for leaks right now because of the open line from the back of the water heater. We will be much better off with this new line. It is a reinforced poly line and best of all, it doesn't have any green stuff growing in it.

Here is Dan and Dan re installing the water heater. It should also be noted that the anode rod was also replaced while the water heater was worked on. It was a major screw-up on my part to have not replaced the rod, and my friends again helped me out. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have my friends work on this problem for several hours. 

We had a potluck dinner tonight with some more great food. When have you ever gotten any bad food at a potluck? The rally is going very well, especially for me...

So long.

Thursday April 10, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

Most of our Heartland friends had arrived by Thursday afternoon including Chapter Leader Larry Keever and his wife Donna. We had a Meet and Greet in the huge rally hall. This is a great venue for a rally, with long sites that are well maintained and very level. There is just enough of an slope to the sites to drain water away which makes it nice. We have been very impressed with this park. 

This area was originally settled by the Choctaw Indians after they left their ancestral home in Mississippi and Alabama, when they made their way on the Choctaw Trail of Tears. The town was founded by Pierre Durant and his family and named after his son Dixon Durant. Dixon had established the first general merchandise store adjacent to the rail siding of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail line.

We have a problem that I discovered late this afternoon. I found a small water drip coming out of the underbelly and then found that the underbelly cover of chloroplast material is swollen with an accumulation of water. I poked a few holes in the cover to drain the water out and we will work on it more tomorrow. Please stay tuned...

So long.

Wednesday April 9, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

Here we are, all set up and ready to party in Durant Oklahoma. I've noticed that the locals pronounce it like Doooorant but I get looked at funny when I say it that way.

We've spent time with our friends, most of whom came from Santo at the rally there. Today the rest of the folks that had been with us there arrived along with some of the Oklahoma chapter members. The place is starting to fill up with Heartlanders!

Stella and I went to the Wal Mart in town and while she shopped, I capped a couple of Munzees. I came back to the truck and found the location for the "World's Largest Peanut" that was found in front of the city hall in Roadside America thanks to my friend Kelly Barnett. She's a blogger too and told me about this site and sometimes I find some cool stuff so if you're a blogger or just a traveler, it might be worth your while to look for this stuff on your trip.

We came back to the park this evening and had an absolute feast of smoked ribs, cheesy potatoes and barbecue beans. Dan and Jim both cooked the ribs using their portable smokers, and boy, were they good! Jim fixed some strawberry shortcakes with a side of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla and that topped it off! And you wonder why we love these rallies?

So long.

Monday April 7, 2014-Moving day-Coffee Creek RV Park to Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

Yesterday, Sunday, was a very drab, cold and rainy day all day long. The only thing we did was to go down to the rally hall for coffee and cop food (donuts). We said goodbye to some of our friends that had to leave to go back home for work, but there were several that stayed, many planning to go to the next rally in Durant Oklahoma. We mostly stayed indoors for the rest of the day because of the bad weather. I think if I continue to complain about the weather it will stay but if I ignore it, it will just simply go away.

This morning, we were up and working on getting packed up to leave for Durant. We decided to follow our friends Dan and Karen and we both pulled out about 9. Pretty good for little or no prep the night before. Rather than take the freeways as we normally would have, we went on some back roads to avoid a huge traffic jam at the Texas World Speedway near Ft. Worth where they are running a race that was postponed from yesterday because of the rain.

We made very good time and only made one stop for a potty break on the side of the road somewhere. We pulled into the beautiful Choctaw Casino KOA RV Park a little after 12. It wasn't long before we were all set up and the a/c on, cooling the trailer off.

Several more of our Heartland friends arrived from Santo and we had a small gathering at our trailer with coffee and fire crackers later in the afternoon. Later we decided to go into Durant for some pizza at a Pizza Hut but it was closed for everything but take out. We ended up at Chili's which was all right but nothing spectacular. 

We came on back home and some went to the casino to gamble but Stella and I came home to rest after the travel day. We will be looking forward to more of our friends arriving soon and the rally begins on Thursday.

So long.

Saturday April 6, 2014-Coffee Creek RV Park, Santo TX

Another cool morning here in Santo. Not quite as cold as yesterday but still cool. Jim B. has planned to fix a big breakfast for everyone and I was asked to open the hall and start the coffee pot. I was up already, so it was no trouble at all to go over and plug in the coffee pots and it wasn't long until folks started showing up. Jim, Buddy, Larry, Bob and Dan as well as others made pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and other assorted breakfast food and they were DELICIOUS! 

We sat around chatting after breakfast and went back home for some rest. Please remember that some of us were up, playing dominoes until almost midnight! I worked some on the Regional rally that is being held in Amana IA between naps, so it was a good day.

We all met outside the rally hall for a group photo that Bobcat took for us. We had some fun, cutting up during the taking of the picture. We then went inside and had a delicious potluck dinner. The club bought barbecue and we brought sides, and as usual, the food was great.

Everyone sat around visiting until we took short breaks to go back home and let our pets outside, returning for some more dominoes. Of course, I lost but they rigged the game. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it! Another midnight game too.

So long.

Friday April 4, 2014-Coffee Creek RV Park, Santo TX

We had a nice day today, although it was cold this morning, about 45 degrees. I guess that winter really is never going to leave! Our friends Dan and Karen who live in the upper peninsula of Michigan just heard that they will have 18" of snow today in their area. 

I went over to have coffee with Dan and Karen and they invited me, and Stella when she finally woke up, to have breakfast with them. Karen did a good job making bacon and eggs for us and we had a nice time talking and visiting with them.

We didn't do too much during the day today but hang out with our friends and visited. We made the rounds through the campground and saw old and new friends, including a couple named Jerry and Diane who are in the final process of selling everything to go full time. There seems to be more and more people that are living full time in their trailers.

This evening we all loaded up and went to the Brazos River Catfish Cafe for supper.

 Everyone getting ready for a catfish feast!

The waitress is hard at work, taking orders. 

After a great meal, we returned to the park for our initial meet and greet. There were a few that were a little late in arriving, including one new couple that had just arrived. Nancy, the north Texas chapter leader, made a few announcements and then had everyone introduce themselves. It was nice to put names to the new faces.

We separated into groups to play some dominoes and played until almost midnight! Good fun...

Great first day of the rally.

So long.

Thursday April 3, 2014-Coffee Creek RV Park, Santo TX

We sat outside for a while last night, visiting with our Heartland friends that we haven't seen in some time. It's so good to be back on the rally trail!

We had a meeting with Jim and Dan & Karen to make plans for the upcoming Regional rally in Amana Iowa in October. Since Dan and Karen are new to leadership with the club, a lot of time was spent going over things with them, and over all, it was a very good meeting. We will all be going to the Oklahoma rally so we'll have another meeting while we are there.

Our meeting ran through the traditional lunch time and we decided to go to David's Stove Shop in Weatherford. This is a very cool place to shop for everything from antiques to old style appliances that are brand new.

This is one of those old-looking stoves that is brand new. It would be very nice to build a new house and use these appliances.

A brand new Heartland brand (no relation to the RV company) double oven. One thing to remember, old-looking stuff is EXPENSIVE!! This oven is $2,375... 

 I don't have a clue what this thing is. It resembles a large harp but it definitely doesn't make beautiful music.

Stella trying out a new outdoor chair, made of a plastic resin material. This one sits up higher and has a nice footrest built in. Very nice; now if we only had some place to use it.

This is not really dynamite, it's actually fire starter. I'll bet you'd get some excitement in an RV park if you brought this box out!

We had lunch at a small restaurant inside the store called The Shed at David's Stove Shop. This is another good find. We came here last year when we were here for the No. Texas rally, so we brought our friends to try it this year. They serve huge sandwiches and home made soup and we had something called Cowboy Pie which was a mixture of several ingredients and boy! was it delicious. We all waddled out of this place. If you're ever in this area, about 20 miles outside of Fort Worth, you need to stop in for lunch. Take exit 415 and you'll find it.

We came on back home and met some of the new folks that had arrived while we were gone and just hung out for the rest of the afternoon. I came home and tried to get in a nap but couldn't get to sleep. I did rest some and we went outside and chatted with friends. A large group went out to eat but we stayed in the park because we were still full from lunch. We sat outside  at Dan and Karen's and they talked Stella and I into splitting a Sloppy Joe sandwich that was delicious. 

It was a very good first day at the North Texas rally.

So long.

Wednesday April 2, 2014-Moving day-Ron Hoover Oasis to Coffee Creek RV Park

We didn't finish up with moving and storing things out of the storage until last night! Finally done though...  We took Tyler and his girlfriend Loren out to eat since we hadn't been able to see very much of him while we were here. We went to the new Hartz Chicken buffet kn Texas City. The food was just so-so but we had a good time with Tyler and Loren.

We took on fuel for the trip to Santo and retired for the night. Then I found that I had left a couple of items here that should have been brought to Kim's house, so we took them over. 

We were up pretty early this morning, packing and getting ready to leave. I was so busy yesterday that I didn't even think about taking the porch down so that was one of the first things I had to do this morning. Everything went well and we pulled out about 9:30. We made good time through Houston and didn't make any stops until we got to the Buccee's store in Madisonville. We got something to eat and for a snack later in the afternoon. We didn't make another stop until we got to a rest stop just before the exit for Hwy. 287. 

I capped a couple of Munzees while we stopped at Buccee's and at the rest area, just to keep in practice. I was so busy for the last couple of weeks that I didn't have time to play Munzees very much. I did deploy some at the new Buccee store in Texas City and capped a few while going over to Manvel for my retired peace officer weapon permit.

We got here to Santo about 4:30 and while getting set up, we learned that plans had been made to go to the Natty Flat Smokehouse for supper. The food was good and we had a fine time talking to many old friends and a few new ones.

We, along with Dan and Karen, were invited to go over to Jim and Nancy's trailer for some Blue Bell and enjoyed our chat with them. Dan just got a new I- Phone and got a lot of hints from Jim. It's so good to be rallying again! I'll keep you posted on everything that goes on.

So long.

Tuesday April 1, 2014-Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park

We finished up our visiting with friends and family yesterday. I took the truck to get it serviced at the Ron Carter Dodge dealership in Dickinson. I like to get this done before we leave for the summer and get the full service with both oil and filter and fuel filter replaced, so the truck is ready to roll!

We found a lot of photos when cleaning out our storage unit and separated them by removing all of our personal photos and brought the old family pictures to my brother Phil. He still has a house and plenty of space to store them, so we went to his house where he is recovering from knee replacement surgery. He is getting around pretty well but it has only been a week or so since he was operated on. We had a nice visit with them and then went out to eat at the Red River Barbecue in League City. Their service was rather slow, but the food was good and we enjoyed ourselves. 

We went to Kim's house to visit them one last time before we leave. Tyler was at his girlfriend's house and Cameron and Kim were having an argument about school, so we didn't stay very long. We still have lots to do to be ready to leave on Wednesday morning, so we came on back home. Beside that, the dogs missed us and we needed to get home to take care of them.

The next time you hear from us, we'll be in a new location and our summer trip will have begun!

So long.