Taking things apart to take a look

We have been having some orange plastic breaking off the slide when we open it so Doug took a look at the gliders today.  Of course to get where you can see them you have to take a cabinet apart.  After getting everything apart he could see that indeed the glide on the slide was starting to break.  Just little pieces here and there.  Now we have to try to find a part number so that we can order a new glide.  this orange glide is about 12 inches long.  He looked and looked but couldnt find a part number anywhere. Now he has the VIN number and is searching for a part.  Our RV is a 1999 and its hard to find parts for RV's that old.  I hope he can find one.  It isn't causing problems yet, but I see some in the future.  It just better hold itself together for our trip next month.
  Anyone know where to buy parts for a 99 HR Endeavor?

I love this weather!

What a great day it was today.  There wasn't any humidity and there was a cool breeze blowing with temps in the 70's.  Now this is my kind of weather.   We went out and took a look at the damage to the slide out awning.  It has a tear about 8 inches at the bead.  I think that is what they call it.  it's where the cloth slides into the thingy on the motorhome.  I know this is real technical but try to keep up. LOL
We taped it as best as we could.  The canvas is in great shape otherwise.  I hate to have to replace it but I really don't know it can be repaired.  We are going to have an upholsterer take a look at it and see if there is enough width to the material to sew another bead on it.  If not I guess we will have to replace it anyway.  We did finally figure out how to lower the window awning.  We could tell that the slide cover also had a window awning extension but couldn't get it to extend.  A little WD40 does wonders.
     After finishing up with the awning, Doug worked on the lights on the RV cover. It seems that  the switch was bad and had to be replaced.  Mark another one off the list.  Works great now.
     While we were outside of course Doc, the horse,  wanted some attention, mainly, he wanted in the back yard  to eat the greener grass on the other side of the fence.  I got him out, put him on a long line and let him munch away.  Doug brought me out a red solo cup of ice water.  I was taking a drink and heard something behind me.  I looked over my shoulder and Doc was right there.  So close in fact, that in the second it took for me to look up he muzzled  my drink!  His big nose wouldn't fit in the cup so he stuck his tongue in my cup.  So much for a cool drink of water.  I poured the remainder out on the ground and he ate the ice!  Silly horse!  I have the best of both worlds.  I love having a horse in the pasture again, I can brush him, talk to him, give him treats and yet I don't have the  responsibility, the expense, or the  headaches of owning a horse.  LOL  (My next door neighbor owns Doc.)
All in all, it was a GREAT day.

Back Home!

We were slow moving this morning.  Neither one of us was in a hurry to leave.  Even though it rained all weekend  (the weatherman said just 30% chance of rain) there wasnt anything that I wanted to do that wasn't done.

We were so busy we never did set up the satellite tv.  Now that's something for us.  We are still getting use to our new phones.  Mine is the same but a lot faster.  Doug is not big on learning new computer/smartphones.  This is his first smartphone and he says it's smarter than he is.  I just need to get my new iPhone and all my other apple products linked together.  I do love that I can post notes on my computer or iPad and they are on my phone when I am out shopping.  My old iPhone was so slow that I rarely used the internet.  This one is so much faster that I may see that I don't need an iPad at all.  I am wondering if it has out-used its usefulness.  I don't like posting on an iPad because I like a keyboard.  That was the reason I got the Mac even though I had the iPad.  I just wasn't as happy with it as I thought I would be.  Now that I have the Mac Air, I wonder if I will ever use the iPad again.  I was just using it when we traveled and didn't have wifi at the campground.  Now that we have our own hotspot that I can tether the Mac to, I really see no need for the iPad.  Now I have to decide, do I keep it, sell it or what?  Doug loves the iPad and uses it instead of his laptop.  In fact I don't think he has used his laptop since getting the iPad. Different strokes for different folks.  It sounds like I need to get rid of my ipad and his laptop.  LOL
  This is our first trip using our new tire pressure sensors and it was nice knowing that the car back there was ok, tire wise.  The  alarm did go off because I had a couple of tires that were a little low on air.  I hadn't even noticed.  That  TST sure did though.  It scared me to death when it went off.  We weren't even hooked up and on the road yet!  LOL  My next surprise was airing up the tires.   We have always used our air compressor to air the tires up.  Well we stopped at the gas station to air them up and to my surprise it costs $1.00 for 3.5 min.  what happened to .25 for all the air you needed!  Of course we got 3 tires checked and aired up and had to put another $1.00 in for the 4th tire.  Bummer! We are good to go now though.  I'm ready for our next trip the first week in Oct.
 Come on OCTOBER!

Since I don't really look at my page I didn't realize that my blogs that I follow is not on my page anymore.  I looked at the template and it shows that they are all there.  Anyone know what happened and how I can get them back on there.  Everything on the template and layout still shows they should be there but they are not. HELP!!

Apple store training

Well I am at the Apple store for my training on my Mac.  I am learning how to use the shortcuts and copy pictures to my blog. All sorts of stuff!  The more I use my mac the more I love it.  I have a class on Ipages too.

This is my trainer guy!  :)
Of course I am old enough to be his mother, but he is still a cutey!
After I left the Apple store I went back and got Doug and we went to AT&T to look at new cell phones.   After much deliberation Doug got one of the new Samsung Galaxy. It has a large screen and works much the same as an iphone.  Of course, this is the phone that apple sued samsung over.  LOL

I got me a new iPhone 4S.  Didn't think I needed to get the 5 since I have been able to do quite nicely with an old iPhone 3.  Hopefuly I will get them all synced together and all will work well.
I am using my iPhone to tether to my Mac to do my blog.

So far so good. I think I will go play now.

Happy Anniversary Doug!

Today was Doug and my anniversary.  We have been married 32 years!  Doug sent me a pretty plant to work.  He knows that though I love flowers, I think that they are a waste of money.  They don't last long and cost way to much!

 rTonight he took me out to dinner at the Colonial Steak House.  I had a New York strip, baked potato and salad.  They brought us out a chocolate cake with cherries and a candle on top.  The food was great and of course I couldnt eat all my steak so I brought it home for later.  I was going to take my camera with me but just my luck, the battery was dead.  bummer!

  

All in all it was a great day.  Happy Anniversary Doug!

Finally getting something accomplished!

Today we spent the afternoon outside.   It was so nice today.  I got the horse out for alittle while and let him eat some of the grass in the back yard.  He loves that since the pasture is kinda low on anything since the drought has been so bad.  I think he gets bored eating hay.  We also put a couple of pork butts on to smoke this afternoon.  I plan on having one of them tomorrow and maybe do something with the leftovers and then freeze the other one to take with us next weekend.  I have some one-to-one classes scheduled next saturday to learn some more about my new Mac.  We will stay at Maumelle so that we can enjoy this great weather we are having and I won't have to drive to Little Rock early in the morning. Plus I don't need a reason to get in the motorhome for the weekend.
  This afternoon while enjoying the weather we decided to go ahead and install our tire sensors.  I bought these over 3 years ago and never got them to work.  We tried and tried. We got so frustrated and each time we just put them back in the box and forgot about them for 3-4 months.  Well we finally sent them back to the factory and they said that the batteries were all bad in them.  It was going to cost $200 to replace ten of the sensors (you can't replace the batteries on this model) so Doug just upgraded to the new 510 model that has come out that you can replace the batteries.

We were dreading trying again since we had had so much trouble with the last ones.  Thank goodness these were a breeze to put on.  The sensors are alittle smaller and have teeny tiny screws in them so that you can replace the battery when needed.  They come with this neat little tool so that no once can steal them off your tires.  It takes this tool to put them on and take them off.

 In this pic I have the sensor on the tool ready to install on the tire.

It came with a smaller monitor than the one we had.  It shows the tire pressure and the tire temp.
You can put the monitor on a stand or mount it on the windshield.

Here is Doug finishing up with the last sensor.  Good job Doug!

I can smell those pork butts!!! They have been smoking for 7 hours now.  I think its time to wrap them up in some foil and let them rest. The big one will be wrapped in foil and left to cook an hour or two more.   Mmmmm good.  I'm thinking there is a pulled pork sandwich in my future.

Sittin at home on a holiday weekend!

Well Doug got called out to work.  Last I heard from him this morning he was headed towards New Orleans now.  He left saturday morning early.  They were suppose to go to Baton Rouge but have since been moved twice.  He spent last night in Hattiesburg, MS.
  We wound up getting almost 9 inches of rain here.  There were several streets flooded.  I had to cross a flooded creek to get home.  I have never seen this particular creek that bad.  They closed the road right after I got through it.  I know I shouldn't have crossed it.  but I  watched two other cars make it and so I just plodded on.  I wish I had my camera with me.
  Doug left his tractor up close to the house and didn't get it put back in the barn before he left.  When I got home the flashers were flashing away.  I went out and turned them off and not two hours later they were flashing again.  I had thought maybe a cat had walked across the buttons and turned it on, but no, I guess it didn't like all that rain either.  I had to go out and turn it off two more times last night and when I got up this morning they were flashing again.  I called my brother-in-law and he came over and disconnected the battery.  Thats one way to stop it.  We had so much rain that the bucket on the front was completely full of water!  Thats a lot of rain.

  I am about to make our reservations for the Pigeon Forge trip in October, let's hope that the weather doesn't put a damper on that trip!

Isaac is headed our way

Isaac is dumping a lot of water in its path as it heads up through Arkansas.  It started raining here around noon.  We haven't had rain in a long while and though it is very much needed, what we are getting is not what we need now.  The wind is blowing and the rain is falling and falling and falling.  Already the ditches are filled and the streets are filling up.  We had 1.75 inches of rain by 6:00 with no sign of it letting up.  This is just the outer bands that are here now.  They expect and predict several more inches of rain before Isaac moves on.
  Farmers are saying it's too much and too late.  The crops are almost ready to harvest and this much rain can ruin them.  Cotton is 10-12 days from harvest.  The fluffy white fiber is now getting wet and falling to the ground.  Cotton on the ground is useless.  Soybeans are almost ready to harvest also.  When it gets wet just before harvest, it can mold.  Rice, even though it grows in flooded fields, can't be harvested in those conditions.  Isaac is causing damage and hurting alot of people.  I hope that as it moves through our state and on to another that it will weaken and cause no more damage.
  Isaac ruined my trip this weekend, but it has ruined alot more than that for hundreds of people.  I hope that it weakens soon and becomes just a easy rain on a late summers day. Stay safe out there folks.

We are on hold

Looks like our weekend trip will be canceled thanks to Isaac.  Right now Doug is waiting to find out where he will have to go to work.  At first he was going to leave in the morning and go to La. but they have decided that they will wait and see what happens tomorrow.  They may be needed in Ar.  I thought it might be a good idea but no one ever asks me.  I am disappointed but looking at the weather forecast, it doesn't look like good weather the entire weekend.  Oh well. Guess I will look into doing something else this long weekend. Whatever it is, it will have to be done inside.  We really need the rain so I don't guess I should complain.  Maybe I will spend time out in the motorhome. I can pretend that its parked someplace great.
I did get an email from TST today.  They have our unit and will be testing it out tomorrow. I hope to find out something soon.
Everyone stay safe out there.  Catch you later.

To Go or not to Go

I will be glad when Isaac decides what and where it is going.  We planned on spending the weekend at Tunica.  Then Isaac gets wishy washy on where its going to reek havoc.  As of today it may be heading our direction.  I would hate to get to Tunica and Isaac come a callin'.  LOL
I am not giving in at this point.  Of course, Doug may be called out to help if there is alot of outages in the area.  Whatever its going to do, I just wish it would do it.
It feels like its been forever since we have been in the motor home.  It's calling my name.  We tried again to get our TST tire monitoring system to work and still no luck.  We called the folks at TST and they were very nice.  They tried to help us but it still wouldn't  work.  We bought this a couple of years ago and have never had it on the tires.  I know, not good.  Well they ended up telling us to send it back to them and they would check the unit out.  Haven't heard from the yet. I hope that everything gets fixed and back to us before we go to Pigeon Forge in October.
Stay safe out there, wherever you are.

Blogs and Bloggers oh my!

I've been reading the blogs I follow.  It's funny how you can read someone's blog and after a while you feel like you know this person; that they are your friend.   Someone that you have never actually met but you get to know their lives day to day.  Why we are so interested is beyond me, but I know that I missed "sassy" when she didn't blog for over a month.  I wondered if she was ok and how her dog Bennie was.  In fact it was Bennie that caught my attention when I first found her blog.  You see Bennie looks exactly like my dog Muffie.  We lost Muffie a couple of years ago.  She was almost 14 years old.  Seeing Bennie just made me smile. So I started following her blog to see Bennie.  LOL Hope that isn't an insult to Sassy! Not meant to be.  (sassysondaroad.blogspot.com)
    I found Karen on another blog.  She had beautiful rugs that she hand wove.  She also makes socks! Her and her husband were looking at retiring next year and full timing.  Since Doug and I are looking forward to retiring next year, I started following her blog. Her hubby Steve is one of those "can fix anything " people.  Boy I wish my hubby was.  He is one of those, "find me someone to fix this" people.  I have learned a lot from Steve.  I especially have learned how much we don't know about our motor home and unfortunately how it can hurt us!   (kareninthewoods.blogspot.com)
    The very first blog I ever started reading was Tioga George.  He has been blogging for almost 10 years now.  His travels and views are always interesting.  He makes me want to go check out Mexico.

Pinnacle Mtn

    There are so many good blogs out there. There are many more that I follow.  They are listed here on my site.  These are friends of mine that I have never met.  I may never meet them but I still feel that they are my friends.  In this digital world, I guess we now have digital friends.  From Newfoundland to Mexico, and many miles in between, I learn something everyday from my new friends.  They inspire me in different ways.  We all might be miles apart, but we are as close as a blog away.

The weekend is just too short!

We have had a good restful weekend but it was just too short.  Friday night we went out to eat at Laynes Steak house in Star City with the Matthews.

After enjoying a very good meal, we got down to the business of planning our next trips.  I have been checking out area campgrounds for somewhere to stay over the Labor day weekend and unfortunately everything I found was already booked.  It didn't take long for us all to agree on a trip back to Tunica for the long weekend.  We can always find a place to stay there.  We plan on going into Memphis on this trip.
Next was the decision of where to go in October for my birthday trip.  This will be a 13 day trip.  After much discussion, we decided on Natchez, MS.  We are looking at staying at River View RV Park.  I am looking forward to seeing some of the old antebellum  homes in this old city.
It feels good to have a few trips lined up.  I hate it when there is nothing on the agenda.  I need something to look forward to.
We also talked about a trip to Fla. in May.  Of course we also discussed Doug's upcoming retirement.  He has 65 days left.  By the time the Fla. trip comes around we both will hopefully be free from work schedules!
Fun is again on the Calendar!! YEA!!!!

My new Mac!

Sorry I haven't posted lately.  Haven't been anywhere and we haven't done anything, except, BUY ME A NEW MACBOOK AIR!  I have taken the past few days getting used to a mac and I must say that I love it.  It boots up so fast! I love the track pad or whatever  they call it.  I am trying to get use to all the shortcuts.  I like using two fingers to scroll through pages and swiping from one page to the other.  I have spent some time setting everything up and getting my favorites and bookmarks all moved over.  The worst thing that I have experienced is the change in Quicken.  I have used quicken for ten or twenty years.  How long has it been out?  Thats how long I have used it and I have always liked how easy it is to use.  Well..... the Mac version is so different that had I known I think I would have just bought a totally different software and started over completely.  I might as well have.  Nothing is the same!  I am not too crazy about the changes either.  It doesn't do half what the windows version did.  Oh well.  I guess I will get use to it sooner or later.
The next problem that I have encountered is that my camera uses an xd card and the Mac has a SD slot. Bummer!  well there are ways around that.  I will just use my usb cable and link the camera to the laptop.

See there is my new Mac!

I love deer but.....

I was so proud of my sweet potato vine.  It was growing by leaps and bounds.  Unfortunately, it must have not only looked beautiful but delicious also.

The deer love to come up in the front yard and eat all of the crab apples off the tree.   I guess they needed a salad to go with their meal.  That barrel was so full of green vine you couldn't see the petunias! Only good thing is that now the petunias are getting some sun and growing.  There are plenty of crab apples, leave my sweet potato vines alone!  We have golden delicious apple trees too, but the squirrels  try to eat them all before the deer so we don't stand a chance. Both trees were loaded last year and we didn't get a one.  One day they were loaded, the next day they were bare. Hmmm  They also love Hosta plants.  I think the deer think my front yard is a buffet.

Thank goodness they left the one on the porch alone.  Probably because the light came on when they got close.  LOL

Time to head home

We slept late (of course) trying to enjoy our last day here.

Then we headed for the Red Oak Fillin Station for lunch.  Yes we do eat a lot.

After checking things out, we went in to enjoy some Chicken and Dressing, corn, cream potatoes and gravy and a biscuit. All but Libbie, she had a hamburger and onion rings.
Unfortunately we had to pack up and go home.  Jim and Libbie moved on to Lake Catherine State Park for a night or maybe two.  He had to rub it in that we had to go home so that we could go to work.  They sure are enjoying their retirement!  Come on January!

In case you think this looks a little familiar, that's because it is.  We came to this place a few months back when we were checking out Catherine's Landing.  RERUN!
We are home, unloaded and Doug is doing what he likes to do best!

TRIP TO CATHERINES LANDING

We decided to go to Catherines Landing in Hot Springs for the weekend. http://www.catherineslanding.rvcoutdoors.com/  Here is the website for the campground/resort.    I didn't get off until 4 so Doug went ahead and left so that he could get set up.  Hot Springs is only an hour from where we live.  About 3 Doug called and said that we had a problem with the motor home.  He had no brakes!  He made it to the RV resort but only barely.  He was backing in and the motor home locked completely up! It wouldn't move at all. He had NO air pressure.  This is not a good thing.  He looked and looked trying to find a leak in the air bags or the lines and didn't find one.  He unhooked the dryer and still no luck.  There had to be a leak but he couldn't find it.  He decided he had no choice, he called Good Sams and asked them to find a mechanic that would come out.  It was getting late by then and Doug said "just put me on the list for first thing in the morning".  We went to bed last night wondering just how much this was going to cost.

Early this morning Good Sam called and said they had found a mechanic that would come look at it at 11.  True to their word, at 11 he was here. It took him about 15 minutes to find the problem.  We had a bad hose at the compressor.  He had to go back to his shop to make one.  They couldn't get it off and had to cut it with a saw.  That didn't look good.  Bottom line because it was a Saturday,  he had to go back to his shop 25 miles away, and he had us and he knew it, it cost us $559 to change a $50 hose.  We needed Steve (Karen in the Woods, blog) he can fix anything.

We did have a good weekend anyway.  We went to Bath House Row in downtown Hot Springs.

The Fordyce Bath House is set up as a museum so that you can see how it was when it was built back around 1915.

This is a stained glass ceiling in the Mens shower/steam room.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  Even after all this time, the colors are so vivid.

This statue was directly under the stained glass ceiling.

This was the parlor.  Notice the ceilings are stained glass. On each end of this parlor are separate parlors for just men and just women.  A lot of segregation of the sexes in this bath house.  LOL

Here is Jim, Libby and Doug in front of the Arlington Hotel.

Hope you can read this.  It tells of the history of the Arlington and some of its infamous visitors.

The hot water coming up out of the ground is REALLY hot!  It is suppose to have healing powers.  I guess that is why there is so many bath houses on bath house row. LOL

The picture isn't too clear but I guess you can tell that that's King Kong that Libby has an infatuation with.
Well after shopping a little while we decided to do what we do best, eat.

Almost forgot to take a pic for the blog.  There was more but Jim was hungry and ate it before we could get the pic.  Fried catfish, hushpuppies, slaw and french fries.  This place was a great find for us.  Thanks urbanspoon!  The food was great and they also had bread pudding that was to die for.  Oh yea, the name of the restaurant was Mr. Whiskers.  Sure hate to go home tomorrow.

It finally rained!

It has been terribly dry here.  We have not had a decent rain in months.  Yesterday and today we finally got a good slow steady rain.  Since it rained most of the day yesterday, I spent part of the day catching up on my reading blogs.  I have recently started reading RV-a-go-go and I needed to go back to the beginning and catch up. I love the recipes and beautiful pics that they post.  If you don't read their blog, I recommend them highly.  I think you will enjoy their posts.  There are several blogs that I like to follow, Karen in the Woods is another.  I am very jealous that their new adventure is starting soon.  They have sold their house and next month when it closes, they will officially be fulltimers!
While I was soaking up all this knowledge that I gleem from all of these blogs, I started to wonder.  How do you decide what to keep and what to give up?  When down sizing from a stick house to a much smaller RV something has to give!  My biggest question is the closet.  I have alot of clothes and shoes and shoes and more shoes.  How do you decide how much is enough?  Since you are moving from area to area, reruns on clothing shouldn't be a problem.  You can wear the same clothes over and over, I guess.  Is 5 shirts, 10 shirts enough?  Is 3 pair of shoes enough?  A pair of blue jeans, slacks and shorts?  I got to looking in my closet and I realized that I don't wear half of whats in there! So now I know I can cut my wardrobe in half, no problem.  But this still doesn't get it down to RV closet size. It seems like every trip we take I waffle back and forth between taking way too many clothes and not taking enough.  It's hard to find just the right amount.  What about different seasons?  Is there room for both winter and summer clothing? So my question to you is, Just how much clothing do you really need?
Another thing I was thinking about is a dishwasher.  I like to cook but I sure hate to wash dishes.  I think one would fit fine under the cooktop.  I don't have an oven and I have plenty of storage.  I don't think I would miss that one cabinet under the cooktop. I am afraid to price this little goody.   Is there something in your stick home that you really don't want to give up?
Looks like rainy days really get my brain to working.    I have til January 31st to prepare.  Even though we won't be selling the house right away (I am still working on Doug) our first trip should take us 4-5 months to complete.   Now I need to figure out what I need and live with it.  LOL

A Fallen Soldier Comes Home

Today was a very sad day in our community.  One of our young men serving in Afganistan was brought home and buried today.  If it wasn't hard enough for this young widow and her babies, to say goodbye to their loved one, the Westboro Church, if you can call it that, posted on their website they were coming to  declare that his death was God's doing as a punishment.  I believe they were out numbered today and even though they were seen in town,  they did not disrupt the funeral of this fine young man as they have others across the country.

People from all over town came and lined the streets on both sides. Most carrying American Flags.

This fallen hero deserved our respect.

When the family heard that Westboro members were coming to demonstrate, they asked the Patriot Riders to please come.  Over 200 came.

The demonstrators stayed at their hotel.

My thoughts and prayers go out the the Strachota family.  God Bless America, Again

Sgt. Michael Joseph Strachota

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th!  It wasn't our usual 4th.  Our family usually gets together and we cook out and have lots of food and home made ice cream and finish off with fire works.  This year it was just Doug and I.  It was a quiet day but ok.  Doug helped me cook supper, and it was great.  Wasn't the usual fare but that's ok it was delicious.  We had pork chops, corn on the cob, fried squash, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.  I have to thank Nancy Walters over at RV-A-GoGo (rvagogo.blogspot.com)  She supplied the recipe for the pork chops and they were wonderful! Thanks Nancy for posting and making up the recipe for these pork chops.

I used all the rub that the recipe made and so they look dark but are not burned I assure you.  It was just a heavy coating.  Even heavier than the pictures that she showed of her pork chops.  My rub is on thicker I guess because the recipe called for 4 pork chops and I only used 2 and yet I used all the rub. I don't know if it was right but it sure was good.  I will definitely use this recipe again.
here is her recipe:

Grilled Spiced Pork Chops with Maple-Balsamic Glaze

Serves 4

4   pork chops (about ½-inch thick)

1   tablespoon allspice

1   tablespoon cumin

¼   teaspoon cinnamon

¼   teaspoon oregano, dried

¼   teaspoon salt

⅛   teaspoon pepper

½  cup balsamic vinegar

¼  cup maple syrup

2   tablespoons honey

Combine allspice, cumin, cinnamon, oregano, salt and pepper.  Coat pork chops on both sides with spice mixture, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and honey in a small saucepan.  Place over low heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes until syrupy.  Reserve to glaze on the chops when they are done..

Place pork chops on a preheated grill over medium-high heat.  Grill pork for approximately 4 minutes per side or until cooked through.  Spoon a couple of spoonfuls of the sauce over the chops while on the grill.  Transfer to plates and spoon more sauce over pork chops. 

I was so proud of myself because I did as she said and only cooked them for 4 min per side.  I am afraid I am one of those people like she mentioned in her blog that think you have to cook pork to death.

Now that I am full and resting while I enjoy my iced tea, I think I had a good day after all.

Have a safe 4th and remember Freedom is not free!  Our men and women are fighting for us each and everyday.  Thank you to all the Service men and women and their families that sacrifice so much for our freedom.

Our Dog Children

Today very good friends of ours lost their dog-child, Tootie.  She was 13 1/2.
I know from experience just how hard this is.  We love our pets as part of our family and when we lose one we hurt just the same.  Unlike our human family, our pets give us unconditional love.  The don't care if we mistreat them, forget to give them more food or water, didn't praise them when they did something good, they love us still the same.  They are always happy to see us.  They greet us with exuberance whether we were gone 2 hrs or 2 minutes.  They are just always happy to see us.  They really love us.  We love them.
Tootie may be gone but she won't be forgotten.  The love she gave will always be remembered.
Good girl Tootie!

The Good, the bad and the Ugly!

I have had all three this week.  It started off as a good week but Monday evening Doug and I got food poisoning and it went downhill from there.  That was not a good experience.  We both missed work on Tuesday. We had others things pressing. (OK that was bad) We were both so weak that wednesday and thursday were both worthless.  We didn't feel like doing anything.  Friday we felt better so we went out to dinner with some friends and had a nice visit with them at the house afterwards.
This morning we got up and worked in the yard.  Doug had a tree cut last week and the trunk was still standing like a toothpick stuck in the yard.  We got that cut down and drug to the back yard burn pile.  Of course there is no telling when we will be able to burn it.  We have burn bans because it has been so dry.  Even fireworks for  July 4th are cancelled.  It is so dry here the trees are fighting over the dogs!
We really do need some rain here. All the ponds are drying up, my flowers are slowly withering away. I had a few that didn't make it while we were gone to Amarillo.  Only good thing is the yard doesn't need mowing. Of course the grass is just about all dead.  Nothing looks good around here.  Come on RAIN!
Tonight after supper we went to Lowe's and bought a whiskey barrel to plant flowers in and put where the tree was.  I know this is something else that I will have to water.  I plan on putting some sweet potato vines and geraniums in it.  I will take a pic when its finished.  If all goes well I will have it finished tomorrow afternoon.

I realized today that we don't have anymore trips scheduled.  This is just depressing.  I have no more vacation.  The only holiday is the 4th and that falls on a Wednesday so we can't go anywhere.  It seems that the next time that we can schedule a trip will be in September for labor day.  That is just too far away.  I am going to have to come up with a weekend trip that is close by. I will go into withdrawal from not being in the motorhome.  Cant do that!
I have family members that are at the lake this week (and last).  Seeing her pictures on facebook reminded me of the great times we had taking the boys.  I sure do miss those days.  We started out with a popup (that lasted one 2 week trip).  I told Doug if we were going to continue this camping stuff (I had never camped in my life til Doug talked me into taking the boys) we had to have better accommodations.  We bought a used 35' Terry TT.
Then Doug gave in and sold his fishing boat. (We looked like Vietnamese boat people because we had so many kids on board) We bought a ski boat and made some great memories.  After the boys were grown and gone it just wasn't the same going to the lake.  We sold the boat because all we did was ride around in it.  We had no kids and toys to pull.  We haven't been to the lake since.  I miss those days.
Seeing her pictures today brought it all back.  Those were some great times!

We're home!

 We stopped last night at a KOA at Lake Eufaula Ok.  We were so tired it sure was nice that they had a little cafe inside the KOA.  We had fried catfish for supper.

Here we are at our site.  We left Amarillo around 11 and arrived at the KOA at 5:30.  That is just too long to be on the road.  If we didn't have to be at work on Monday, there is no way I would want to stay on the road that long.  Notice we didn't boon dock on the way back. Doug offered to try again and use the generator but I didn't think that was such a good idea.  As tired as I was I wasn't ready for heat too!  The first thing we noticed when we got out of the motor home was the humidity.  Though not as bad as home it was much higher than in Texas.  I sure liked that low humidity.  I could handle the heat a lot better there.

Doug at his favorite job, dumping!  NOT!

This was going to be a good pic I took going down the road, but my camera has a second delay and a truck blocked the pic.  Story of my life!
We stopped in Clarksville, AR. for a bite to eat at South Park Restaurant.  I don't know if it was named after the tv show or not.  The food was good and it was nice to get out and stretch.  We could tell we were in Arkansas though.  The humidity was terrible!  Ten minutes outside in this heat and there won't be a dry spot on you.

She is back in her spot and unloaded except for the refrigerator.  I ran out energy before I got that done.  We will finish that tomorrow.   For now it's time to rest.

Forgot to show you this

Ok, I raised 2 boys.  No girls, but I am one myself, so I think I can dress a now 6 year old. No problem.
Well my lovely daughter-in-law just doesn't  think that I can.  Just because when she was around 2 or 3, I dressed her in what I thought was a dress, (I did think that it was short but I just thought Ashlynn was outgrowing it.) Well it was a blouse. You could see her little girl panties when she walked.   In my defense,  if you could have seen this top, you would have thought it was a dress too.  I know you would have.
Anyway, she sends Ashlynns suitcase packed like this.

Every zip lock bag has a days set of clothes, matching bows, shoes etc.

Yep, even shoes.  I didn't have to think about anything when it came to dressing Ashlynn.  She even had pony tail thingys in each bag.  She said she saw this on Pinterest.  It was a tip for saving room in luggage.  She said it came to her that it should be helpful for me.  Not that I needed any help, she just wanted to make it as easy for me as possible.  She was laying it on alittle thick.  I think I might have believed it was just a neat thing if she hadn't laid it on so thick.  No, wait, as soon as I saw those zip bags with each days clothes I knew it.  I knew I never was gonna live it down.  I never would be trusted to dress her little girl again.
Well, it worked, she sure looked nice this week.  It sure was easy to just grab a bag and dress away.  Let's don't tell Lori though.

A dead battery makes an unhappy camper

My battery in the camera will not hold a charge.  Some days its good to go and some days I get a few pics and its dead. Nothing worse than having a great shot in the lens and suddenly the screen go blue!  I am going to the store to replace it today.  Damage is already done though, I missed some great shots yesterday.
We went to see Ashlynn play T-ball.  It was her last game.  I am glad we got to see her play.  It was fun.  It was like mass confusion!  Some of the kids are starting to get the jest of playing and some still don't have a clue.  Good times were had by all the kids and that's what matters.
We had lunch today at Blue Sky.  This is a great hamburger place. Best burger I think I've ever had.  Yep it beat Five Guys and Cheeburger cheeburger.

If you are ever around Amarillo, you need to check them out. They are cheaper than McDonalds! Really, they have great prices too. Four of us ate for around $33.


We are going to see a house that they are looking at today.  Yep, they are house hunting.  What a fun job!  We all loved the house and they are going to make an offer on it.  Glad we were here to see it.
After supper Lori and Brian went to a movie and Ashlynn and I went over to the fishing pond.
We walked around what she called the "maze".

Her and her new friend did some fishing and Ashlynn caught her first catfish.

She really didn't want to touch it. LOL

Close up of the baby catfish she caught.  Yes it was released.

Ashlynn and her new friend.
As you can see by the time she finished fishing it was dark. We leave tomorrow and I am not ready to go.  I have really enjoyed being here this week and am ready to plan another trip back. I think I am going to wear out the roads between Houston and Amarillo.  I really need a home in the middle of Texas!

Time to  leave the site we have called home for the week. I don't think we will boon dock on the way home.  LOL