Merry Christmas!

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and that the new year coming brings you riches of love, friendship and happiness.
As for my Christmas, I have to say it was the worst one I have ever had.  Neither of my children came home (which is understandable, we were just together at Thanksgiving and they both live so far away. Then Brian and Lori came home after Thanksgiving because her grandmother had died.) This left me with an empty house.  I didn't even put up a tree.  I knew that it wasn't going to be a fun holiday so we left on Monday and came up to Tunica.  The weather has been so cold and iffy that we didn't want to go too far.  It turned out it has been very cold here with temps in the 20's at night.
I thought being away would help but it didn't. Well maybe some. I would have been a mess at home I'm sure.  Anyway, that's life.  I understand it, I'm just not happy with it. LOL  It did make me happy to see that my kids were happy and doing what they really wanted to do. So I guess something good did come from this.
When we first got here we had an electrical problem.  We had no electricity at the front of the bus.  No TV!  this is serious.  After looking at and checking all plugs and switches at the front of the bus Doug called friend Jim and asked for help.   It turned out to be an outlet in the bathroom that had tripped.  How does something in the bathroom effect the front of the bus but not the kitchen or living room? hmm  oh well, easy fix.
We brought Buddy with us.  This is his first trip in the motorhome and he was doing so well until last night.  He ate up the screen door while we were gone.  Not good.  He loves being outside and this isn't his cup of tea.  I don't know but I hope that he will be a happy camper dog the more he goes with us.  We will see.  I didn't take any pictures.  It wasn't the best of times as it was, don't think I really need any pics to remind me.  LOL
We left him again today and he did fine so I hope that he is getting use to this.  Or giving up.
Friends, Jim and Libbie, are suppose to be here Sunday with their new dog.  Maybe this will Buddy something better to do than eat screen!
We are staying here through New Years Day.  I hope that things get better for us and for Buddy.

Nothing but cold and ice

Haven't posted since we have been home.  Nothing to post.  It is cold here and we have had some sleet but not real bad.  Of course in this area we are not prepared for ice so it doesn't take much to shut the town down.  I haven't been out of the house since Friday and cabin fever is setting in.
I went to the store on Friday and all the crazies were out buying everything in the store like it would never be replenished.  There was no bread on the shelves and they were restocking eggs and milk as fast as they could.  Gee folks don't panic, you can always make cornbread or crack open a can of biscuits if you can't make them.
A neighbor gave us some ground elk meat and I made chili with it.  First time I have cooked or even eaten elk.  I really couldn't tell any difference between it and ground beef.  I have had deer chili and this was just as good if not better.  Yesterday I made homemade vegetable beef soup.  Now you see why I haven't posted.  My life is pretty boring right now.  I can hardly stand it so why would anyone want to read about it.  Even the dog is getting depressed from boredom.  He doesn't get out of bed til noon or later.  He stays under the cover hidden away. I feel the same way.  Maybe I should just stay in bed too.
Later

Home in time for a cold snap

We made it home today around 1:30 or so.  Got the motorhome fueled back up and checked her mpg. We did fairly well averaging 10 mpg.  Not her best but we had worse on windy days.  Got everything unloaded and Doug will winterize her tomorrow.  It seems that we might have a winter mix of snow and ice headed our way.  If we get anything it will be ice. We just don't get the pretty stuff around here.  Ice storms are what we get and that means outages.  We live in an all electric house so that means its going to get cold in here.  Doug refilled the butane so that we would have the fireplace to heat the house if we loose the electricity.  I think we are ready if it comes.  Usually if the weatherman says its coming, it doesn't.  It's when he says that it will miss us, we need to worry.  One of our worst ice storms was a surprise.  We weren't suppose to get anything and we wound up with heavy ice and no electricity for two weeks.  The high today was 70.  It is in the 50's now and is suppose to be in the 30's this weekend.  Bummer.
I forgot to mention yesterday that as we were going thru the very small town in south Louisiana.  Since it's close to christmas they had a wooden santa in his sleigh.  The only difference is that this Santa was standing in a canoe and it was being pulled by 4 alligators!  LOL   Only in America!
Later

Headed for Ruston, La.

We left this morning and headed toward Ruston, La.  This picture was taken while on that bridge in yesterdays post.

See the concrete pad there on the side of the Isle of Capri building.  That is where we were parked. See how small the area is?

 The police were busy today.  This was as we came off the bridge.  They were searching that vehicle.

                                              There is a lot of barge traffic on this waterway.

                                    This is just a picture of some of the Louisiana country side.

                                                            Just on the road again.

 We stopped around noon to rest and eat lunch.  We couldn't find a rest stop but did find a big open lot.  After stopping we noticed the very large "No Parking" signs.  So we didn't park we just paused for a minute or two.

 We are staying at Lincoln Parrish Park in Ruston, La.  This is a beautiful park. Sites have full hook ups and include wi-fi.  Cost for the sites are $25.00 a night.  What a find.

 This is our view from our site.  That is an empty site we could have gotten but took a pull thru.

 This is a beautiful park.  There is a sidewalk all around the lake for bikers or those that like a long walk.

                     There are benches placed around the lake for you to sit and enjoy the view.  This is such a nice park, I wish we had more time to stay here.  There is suppose to be some bad weather (ice) headed to our home and we need to get there before it hits and prepare.  We will need to winterize the motorhome and do some things at home to prepare in case we loose electricity.  We seldom get snow in our area and if there is winter weather it will be in the form of an ice storm.  My first inclinaton is to head for Florida but alas I must do the responsible thing.  Bummer.

Lake Charles, La.

We left Houston this morning and headed for Lake Charles, La.  We are, of course at a casino tonight.

These sites are concrete pull thru's with electric only.  They are $20 a night and are first come, first served.  You park in a spot and go in and register.  They are nice for a one nighter.  There are just 8 sites here and I really don't think there is room for eight rigs.

That space between our rigs on the left is suppose to be wide enough for another rig.  I don't think so. We didn't put down the jacks or put out the slide for just this one night stay.  We did have to unhook the car because the sites aren't long enough to leave it hooked up.

Down side is we are right under a very busy bridge.  It doesn't look it, but this is a very tall bridge.

                                                    It's pretty long too!  This is half of it.
We got settled in and hooked up to their internet.  This is the fastest internet we have had this trip.  Heck this is the only really usable internet we have had this trip.  It seems everyone has been having problems with their service.

Here is Libbie relaxing before we go in to gamble. LOL  
We had a very good supper inside the casino.  $26.00 for the two of us.  We then went and lost all of our money on the slots.  LOL  Oh well.  Better luck next time.
We leave in the morning for our next stop.  They haven't told me where that is yet. I don't really care, I'm on the road and that makes me happy.
later

Last day in Houston

We spent our last day in Houston doing more Christmas shopping.  I made a little girl happy by buying her an American Girl doll for Christmas and giving it to her early.

Of course that meant getting accessories and pets and books.  She was happy, so I was happy.

After a full day of shopping we finished up with a great supper at Buca di Beppo.

These were 2 lb. meatballs!  They sure were good too!

This dessert fed all 7 of us.  That's a lot of brownie and ice cream!!!
Their flight leaves early in the morning and we will leave out tomorrow early.  It was a nice stay. Good to see the sons and their families.  Time to move on.  I guess we will head toward home now.
Later