HAPPY HOLIDAYS

FROM BRUCE AND JO-ANNE!!!

From Bryan, Texas

Here is a shot from the kitchen across the little German pyramide to the living room.

And loyal and cooperative Buster wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love y'all and see you in 2009 ...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and as we prepare for Christmas, Jo-Anne has been busy getting our new place ready for the holiday; and as usual has done a super job! I just kinda follow her around and plug stuff in and make sure it all isn't a fire hasard, eh.

Here's Mom just this short time before her 90th birthday.

And Pop with his couch pal, Bandit.

It's a bit dark, but last but not least, Bandit explaining to Buster that this is a large stink bug on the screen that you really should avoid ... Buster promptly bit the thing and spent the next 15 minutes in the back yard shaking his head and spitting and muttering something about, "why is the stupid cat always right?"

Last weekend we decided the Flying Scotsman needed some exercise so we took it out of the cozy garage and headed to North Texas.

Leigh and Brooks had purchased a lot at the resort called The Cliffs, www.thecliffsresort.com many years ago and were curious about its value and what was happening at the resort now so we met them there. The resort is located about 60 miles west of Fort Worth and near the town of Mineral Wells. For those of us who became helicopter pilots, Mineral Wells was the home of Fort Wolters and where many of us did our first helicopter training for the Vietnam war.

They just came over from Dallas and we stayed at the RV park on the property of the resort; this is a huge piece of property with all the amenities. Here are the land owners on their piece of the rock.

The resort is really beautiful and the waterfront lots are in demand and quite spectacular with some multi-million dollar homes overlooking the Possum Kingdom reservoir.

The lake is large with a number of private establishments like The Cliffs around it.

However, their lot which is on the main road into the resort is not one of the more highly sought after ones, and there are probably 500 lots in the place that individuals might want to sell; making thiers not too desireable. They do have an option to trade the lot through the resort for a condo timeshare and the condos there are quite nice with views over the marina and lake from 200 feet above. This might be a better option and they might get some use out of their investment, especially if they don't intend to build anytime soon.

It was a fun weekend and great to be back in the RV for a few days ... especially with gas at $1.49 a gallon!!

We'll title this one, "Water, water, everywhere!!"

About a week after we got all moved into our new place, and about 3am after the first rain here, we heard the pitter-pat of running water, and yup, it was coming from the ceiling of the bedroom, pretty hard. Somehow ... we found out later, there is a hole in the roof right through the shingles, tar paper, and 5/8 plywood. The hole looks about 9mm in diameter ... so either a meteorite or falling lead or contractor goof up ... we don't know. The contractor has assumed full responsibility so far ... so that's good.



At the same time and during the same rain, the yard between our house and the next one turned into a quagmire where you had to wear some pretty tough and high rubber boots even to venture out there ... poor Buster was up to his armpits.



Anyhow the builder has again assumed responsibility and has begun to create a drainage ditch for us and we will enhance the "Big Dig" with our own flagstone and river rock dry creek.

About 2 miles from us is the Messina Hof winery, which is rather convenient. In addition to the traditional wine tasting they offer classes in regional wine qualities versus the Texas varitials. Anyhow, during the two hour class you get to taste some excellent wines from Texas paired with, during this class, the similar wines from France. Well done and here we are, with, Dr Kerry Hope (brother Richard's spouse), after the latest class. In December it will be the wines of Spain compared with the locals, which should be fun!

"Hi. My name is Buster and I'm a dog ... what are you and what's your name? Oooo, you make funny noises but you sort of look look like my cat, Bandit. I don't know why you have to hiss and spit and growl at me like that, when all I want to do is be friends."

I actually walked right up to Buster, picked him up, and brought him into the house, and the opossum stayed right there ... growling and hissing.

Yes, it’s been a while for the traveling Gunns, but our first month back as residents of Texas has been very busy and I’ll try to catch everyone back up and get back on track for the next adventures.

The most significant happening was the passing of Jo-Anne’s mom on the 13th of November. Helen Loraine Purvis was born on February 11th, 1926, and she lived a wonderfully full life until just the last few years. She and William Martin were married a long and happy 62 years.

While we have talked about her Alzheimer’s affliction and relatively slow decline during the summer, this fall she declined even faster and passed away quite peacefully, with both Rick, Jo-Anne’s brother, and her husband Bill at her side.

She and Bill were both in the Army during WWII and met in Ottawa; Leighanne, our dauther was always proud to say that “My Grandma wore Army boots.” It is still undecided where her ashes will be spread and most likely will wait until we return to Canada in the spring.

We will all miss a wonderful wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, friend, and basically well rounded, intelligent, and fun person; yet fond memories will be with us all forever.

A little bit about the big town of Bryan Texas. Bryan is a town of about 40,000, but because it is so blended with College Station, sometimes even they don't know the real population of their respective towns. Anyhow, here is one of the bronze statues around town, and the Carnegie library in the background, which is a wonderful old repository of neat books and information.

And then the celebrity place, Los Nortenos, where Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts romanced for a bit over $6.85 burritos and salsa.

And a view down main street with the old LaSalle Hotel which has been restored and is nice and we've stayed there, and the Queen theater of which you can see the crown and is being restored.

The Palace Theater which burned down many years ago and has been resurrected as an open-air theater preserving the original facade; cool.

This is about a mile from where we live and we are still getting to know all that the town has to offer.

Actually, a couple of nights ago, the family met at a German restaurant for schnitzle and beer ... not bad, but not Germany ... or New Braunfels.

It has really been hectic and a whole bunch of work, but in the end, a bunch of fun. We are now settled into our "winter" home in Texas and it has exceeded all expectations. Everyone who buys a new place knows the work and expense of getting into a new place and this wasn't any exception. A few times during the process I think we both said several times, "let's get back into the RV and not do this ... this is too much work!" Anyhow we are here and it is a really neat and comfortable home.

As you come in the front door you are met with this view. Straight ahead down the hall is the guest bath. Just before that on the right is the office and then the master suite. Around the corner to the left is the laundry room and guest bedroom. Immediately to the left is the kitchen beyond the arched alcoves.

As you walk in the front door immediately to the left is the dining room ....

and to the right is the living room.

Probably the most used and important room of the house is the screened porch, here seen from the outside. And you can see the trees which come with the property, back almost a hundred feed from where I am standing and taking this photo.

Then the porch from the inside where you can see why we love the place so much, especially when the weather has been so Texas perfect ... 80 during the day and about 60 at night ... good porch weather, eh!

But we are right now planning the next road trip!! So stay tuned.

Here is a very nice sunrise in Kilgore, Texas, as we were getting the RV ready last Wednesday morning for the run to College Station. The Shallow Creek park there was excellent and quite full. I think they had been voted the number one in Texas, by several rating organizations and it was obvious. Nice paved streets and concrete pads all with 50 amp power. The lots were quite wide as well so that you weren't right on top of your neighbor.



After Kilgore, we headed the 190 miles through east Texas down to College Station where Bruce's parents live. We contracted with the local Holiday RV Park to park the Flying Scotsman for three nights to sort things out before putting it into the garage.

I said I would talk about the transition of getting the stuff out of the RV and into our new house ... well! We arrived to about 86 degrees and 90 percent humidity and parked the bus in front of the house to onload. We just about died from heat stroke in the process of moving the ton of junk into the garage ... had no idea how much was in that machine that needed to come out and be sorted! Whew. Once the bulk of the stuff was in the garage, we parked the RV at the park for the next couple of days. Thursday Bruce washed the exterior and Jo-Anne cleaned the inside from stem to stern. By that night we were tired puppies. Friday we finished up the cleaning effort while gradually moving into our new place.

And Saturday we moved the Flying Scotsman to its new home after so many months on the road. Here's the garage in Bryan about a mile from where we live where we'll keep it out of the sun for a while.


And the interior of the facility which will give us time and space to do some minor maintenance and cleaning and updating that had been ignored while on the road.

Today it was a picture perfect Texas Chamber of Commerce day in the high 70s with very low humidity ... super!

Now we've been to see y'all for the last year or so, so it is time for you to come and visit us during the nice Texas winter ... stay tuned for the next adventure.

OK, text time.

Right now we are in an RV park in Kilgore, Texas. YES the home state! Last night we stayed in a Jellystone Park in Pelahatchie, MS .... yup, go look that one up. Really first rate kid place with a multi-million dollar infrastructure.

Today we filled up for $2.98 a gallon in Pelahatchie ... not bad. After an average of $5.18 or so in Canada, we paid $3.98 through Vermont, NY, and into Virginia, so the latest is pretty good. With our tail wind today and the smooth roads I would estimate we were getting close to 10 miles per gallon.

We have over 16,000 miles on the bus right now and it still is performing superbly. The last couple of days of travel have been our longest of around 350 miles per day. I just set the cruise on 70 MPH and have been passing the trucks pretty regularly ... beautiful tail wind and smooth roads ... with a couple of exceptions. Through Meridian and Jackson there are a couple of pieces of road ... 30 miles total, that are absolutely bone jarring. We aren't sure why all the pieces of this machine stayed together, with each crash you expect the cieling, cupboards, walls, or whatever, to come unglued .... but it is good glue!

Anyhow, sad to say, but tonight is the last night in the "Flying Scotsman" for a bit. Tomorrow we will arrive in Bryan, Texas, and to the house we bought last May and have only lived in for a couple of weeks. We've contracted with the owner of a former cotton warehouse in Bryan who has converted it into storage for RVs to park the bus indoors for the winter. But, knowing us, that doesn't mean it will stay put for any extended period of time. We will run by the house and dump all the stuff out of the bus that we won't need in it, then go over to an RV park for a couple of days to clean out 16,000 miles of dirt and gunk and then park it in the warehouse. And I'll tell you about the transition from bus to house.

Please stay tuned as Jo-Anne is still talking about a bigger machine for us to travel in and we have only scratched the surface of places we have always wanted to see and experience.

On the 11th of October we landed in Atlanta; Smyrna to be correct, to attend the wedding of Meghan O'Brien, daughter of our long-time super-friends, Gred and Char O'Brien. The wedding took place in a very quaint little church northwest of central Atlanta.

Here is son Patrick walking proud Mom, Char, down the aisle. Patrick is a very sucessful lawyer in Dallas and was born a month before our daughter Leigh, and Char and Jo-Anne slogged through their pregnancies together in Tucson, Arizona, in 1976.

And proud pappa, Greg, with daughter Meghan. Because of the slowness and inexperience of the photographer, we didn't get any decent pics of Meghan and Christopher, the groom, but he is a tall, handsome guy that any father would be happy to have as a son-in law.

The following reception was very nice and the music and dancing great. We don't know who picked the music selection but it was a nice blend of stuff, most favoring us oldsters, including the "YMCA" number which got Jo-Anne and Char off the bench and dancing with the 20-somethings. Fun time.

After our wonderful visit to the Fredericksburg area we motored down the coast and took a right turn toward Asheville, NC. In Asheville, of course, is the Biltmore Estate, a must see which we have wanted to do for many, many years. A little dark and a bit of rain, but the estate and "house" are awesome.

There are miles of trails and paths and the scenery with the fall foliage was really special.

The tour of the main house, where we weren't allowed pictures, was very well done and about an hour long. It rivaled the Hurst mansion on the west coast in splendor and size. It also reminded me of the Neuschwanstein castle of King Ludwig in Germany as well ... absolute unlimited money to create a living environment ... wow!

For a lunch break in the stable next to the main house we ate in one of the former stalls ... don't think there was any horse meat on the menu though. Really nice lunch, well served, with very patient and professional staff rivaling a fine restaurant.

Then we went to the vinyard and farm ... still on the estate, but about 4 miles from the main house, and had a tour of the wine making facility and caves. Here's my favorite "wine cellar queen." Actually these cellar caves were used for the storage of milk on the estate long before the popularity of the wine.

Ahhh ... so many bottles and so little time ... !

After Gettysburg, we headed down to another "burg", Fredericksburg, VA, where we were hosted by an old friend from our Montgomery, Alabama and Civil Air Patrol days in 1992 or 1993, Sandy Rose.

Sandy is an anti-terroism expert who has worked overseas for the State department in developing programs for state leaders to combat terrorism. Because of her language skills she also conducts English writing seminars on her own and is starting a company to do more of that type of training. Here's Sandy and Jo-Anne in Sandy's place in downtown Fredericksburg.

She has a really sharp new condo right in the downtown of Fredericksburg from where we walked to a wonderful restaurant on the riverfront the first night there. The weather and view from the balcony of the restaurant couldn't have been better. Either the kayak person was really fast or the photographer was a bit slow ... don't know .... but this was the view from our table ... awesome!

The next night we drove a short bit to another fine place for the obligatory wine toast.

Sandy is a good friend who is doing super work for us all and we are already ready to come back here!

On October 3rd we arrived in Gettysburg and settled into a pretty good park nearby. The Drummer Boy RV Park ... hey I didn't name it ... was a really good park, even though we were in the deep woods. Then we headed off for the memorial. This place is awesome!

We have never been here and it is a must see for any American. We first headed for the visitor center where they have movies and a superb museum ... with its own movies. It is all brand new and very well done. We spent about an hour getting the perspective on this conflict that pitted us against each other with over 300,000 being killed in the process.

After the museum and visitor center we headed out for the driving tour which took about an hour. There are several hundred monuments and the vistas are preserved for you to imagine the view for either Grant's or Lee's forces on that fatal battlefield. I have read a lot about the war but until you are here and look at the actual battlefields, can you appreciate the logistics and command view of the battle. Here is Lee's view of Seminary Ridge as he ordered Longstreet and Pickett to attack. Between here and the single trees in the distance 4,000 men died and over 12,000 were wounded, many who would die later.

Tonight we are in Asheville, NC, but after we departed the Boston area we stopped in NY and then near Gettysburg, VA.



After Gettysburg, we stayed a couple of nights in Fredericksburg, VA.



In both of these places we took a bunch of pics and as soon as I get a decent computer hookup I will post them. From the time we entered NC we have been plagued by poor computer reception, either with the ATT data card or WiFi, bad TV reception, and really bad phone connection. Hopefully all this will improve as we leave the state.

While still in the Boston area, we were treated by Virginia and Colin to a trip over to Cape Ann which so typifies what you would expect of the northeast fishing industry. We went to Gloucester and Rockport and it was beautiful.

We took a picnic lunch over to the marina where their sailboat is moored expecting to do some sailing, but the wind was pretty strong and it was cool so we scrapped the sail for more touring of Cape Ann. Here is their boat at the marina.

And while we dutifully followed the leaders on the quest for more spectactular photo opportunities, sometimes the old guys had to do some serious rock work.

But the sailing and fishing images are awesome and only available in this part of the country!

In the Boston area, particularly Wayland, my cousin Virginia and her husband Colin were our hosts. You may remember them from the reunion we attended in Saugatuck, Michigan in August. Here is their home on a very beautiful treed lot.

During the visit we went over to an excellent continuing care facility to have lunch with Virginia's mom who is 95 and still living in one of the independant cottages with very little care needed. In the picture are Margaret, her daughter Virginia, and Virginia's daughter Jennifer's boys, Graham and Andrew; what a span of generations!

Also during the visit we had dinner at Jennifer and Eric's home which isn't far from Virginia's. Here are the planners discussing how to best guide our touring plans for the next couple of days.