Monday October 17 through Wednesday October 19, 2016-Inks Lake State Park

We needed to head back "home" to the Dickinson area to do our "every 90 days" doctor appointments. We left here early Monday morning after I found Chris Hall, one of the Lead Rangers here to tell him of our plans. He was very glad to see us and said that it was no problem.

We had a bit if trouble finding a motel that would accept a pet but finally located one, the Motel 6 in Texas City. The last time we had noticed this motel, it was a La Quinta, and we have actually stayed here before. Stella read some reviews on this place and the reports were pretty bad, but, as I said, it was the only game in town. We found another motel that would take us in with Tramp, but they would charge a $75 non refundable "deposit" (read fee) for taking him. No way, Jose! We took Tom Bodette's place and let me tell you, the reviews were right! This place is a dump, and that's being generous. Lights didn't work, the fridge and microwave in the room didn't, nor did anyone answer the telephone to receive our complaints. We learned that Motel 6 had bought this location in 2013 but there is still a crew that is remodeling rooms. Our room looked nice, but there were the deficiencies... Actually we didn't learn about the fridge not working until after I had put a doggie box of leftover food in it and found it very warm in the morning. 

We had a nice meal with Kim, Ray and the boys at a Mexican restaurant. It was good to spend time with them and to see how the boys have changed since we last saw them.

We returned to the motel and found that the bed wasn't as comfy as ours, but it wasn't too bad to sleep in. Actually we slept pretty well and I didn't wake up until after 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning. It was probably because the room was very dark and cold inside. After refreshing showers, we were on our way to run some errands while we were down here. I had left a piece of the frame of our portable steps/porch with a friend (Ken) who had built it for us several years ago when I worked for the Manvel Police Dept. Ken lives in Manvel and I had made arrangements for him to repair it and that we would pick it up when we returned to the area. Because of a series of problems that had come up, Ken was not quite finished with the repairs, but was able to finish it for us later in the day, but we had made a trip over in the morning, thinking it would be ready, so we had to make another trip over later in the afternoon to actually pick it up. After returning to the Clear Lake area to go to the doctor and then returning to Manvel we ended up driving about 150 miles today! It never seemed like that far when I worked there.

We met my brother Phil and his wife Carol for supper at Kelley's Restaurant in League City. Their son Matthew had just returned from living in Wisconsin, so it was good to see him also. After a nice visit with them, we returned to the motel for the last night there. Again, it was a good place to sleep and although both of us woke a few times we still slept ate the next morning. 

We stopped by old friend Mike's house in Dickinson. Mike had suffered a fall that dislocated his shoulder plus he had an irregular heartbeat, which was corrected with a pacemaker. He has been feeling pretty poorly lately but he looked good and it was good to see him.  We only stayed a few minutes, knowing he didn't feel like having company and besides, we had a long drive ahead of us. Actually the drive back was easier than the trip up, but it's good to be back home and sleeping in our own bed.

Now to get into the swing of "working" again.

So long.