Then on the 23rd we had a birthday party for Bruce's mom who turned a young 92. Here's Clare and Mary Alice with a birthday cookie with candles for the occasion ... and we had a pizza from Papa Murphy's ... which Mom really enjoys.




And then Mom in a great moment opening a present with little Everett by the fire in the background ... 90 years of living separating the two ... wow!

Then three generations of wonderful Moms and baby Everett snoozing.

All in all a really great birthday party for Mary Alice and for the baby as well.

After another Thanksgiving of turkey we decided, with the help of my father, to do something different for the Christmas holiday. He suggested something like schnitzel. There you go. With our experience in Germany Jo-Anne and I decided to do a totally German feast with all the trappings of the old country.

The initial menu included schnitzel, red cabbage (rot kohl) and spaetzle of some sort. As sister-in-law Kerry was the expert on the cabbage we left that to her, then during the week prior, we experimented with various kinds of meat and spaetzle. Here's Bruce creating one of our many mistakes before we learned the perfect combo for the meat and veg.

After much experimenting and the help of German wine we settled on a pork tenderloin, pounded out, with Parmesan cheese breading ... egg and flour coated of course. The spaetzle was the Maggi brand from Germany cooked as directed then put in a dish with a couple of pounds of Gouda cheese and a package of broccoli and then baked. With Kerry's rot kohl, German bread, some red Dornfelder wine with dinner, and ice wine for later, it was beginning to look like we had a menu for the holiday party.

Then on the 4th of December, brother Bill arrived from California and we headed back to Bryan to host him for a week. We all got together for a couple of occasions with our parents and Bill was able to see some of his old friends as he graduated High School in College Station here.

Here's Dad and Mom Rich and Bill with some treats.

The day after Thanksgiving, we piled all the pets and people into the Flying Scotsman and headed back up to Richardson (Dallas) to see Leigh and Brooks as they just brought new little Everett home on the 21st. We stayed at the RV park in Carrollton as it was the closest to where the kids live. Here's Brooks with the new little guy and some nourishment.

oooo how quickly we forget ... all that goes in must come out! It's almost like the little guy is already embarrassed with his hands up.

And then some proud grandparents ... our first ... of little Everett ... really neat!

This is the little guy's first Christmas so it was pretty special.

Leighanne and Brooks had the house decorated for the season and the tree was especially nice; a really perfect specimen.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with Mom and Dad and brother Richard and wife Kerry. Here's Pop making his annual offering of cranberries to Mom; great couple with a lot of life to go.




We had a really nice dinner for the six of us of the standard turkey and fixins, especially with Kerry's homemade dressing. We got the turkey hot and ready to carve from the local Kroger store and made all the rest of the items. Here's Rich and Kerry ready to dig into the meal.

On the 21st of November Leigh and Brooks went to the hospital and spent the night with little Everett. That was a practice event to make sure the parents could handle the little guy when he came home.

And come home he did! The next morning on the 22nd Everett Lee Whittington came home to Richardson Texas.

We were all extremely surprised but the baby was doing so well and the parents passed their test, so that the hospital staff gave him his "liberty pass" and he arrived home at about 2pm on the 22nd. His due date was still to be about the 22nd of December so still a month to go before that.

On November 3rd at 8pm we were settling down with a glass of wine by the fire when the phone rang. It was Brooks saying, "We've just arrived at the hospital and Leigh might have a baby and we'd like to have you guys here." Dallas is about 200 miles from our place, so we threw a few things in the suitcase, threw the dog in the car, called wonderful brother Richard to feed the cat, and by 8:30 were on the road.

At 10 that night, while we were enroute, Brooks called and said, you guys are now grandparents! Everett Lee Whittington was born at 9:51 on November 3rd by CS. He was a tiny 4 pounds and 9 ounces and about six weeks early ... and what a surprise for all!

We arrived at the Medical City Hospital in Dallas at about midnight and were able to see both Brooks and Leigh. By the next day we were all able to see Everett and he was doing really well.





He was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the technology and care is awesome. He was doing extremely well right from the start with lungs, eyes, and heart all doing what they should. He's being monitored, but he is doing what he needs to all on his own. Cool.

Here's a comparison of Leigh's hand to the little guy's head. It was amazing that we were all able to get in and touch the little dude in his first 24 hours.

Within a couple of days the staff was able to take little Everett and let him bond with Mom in a period called "Roo Time" after kangaroo parenting methods.

And then Dad was able to get some personal time with the new boy. Big man little man and really neat! Oh, let's see, who has more hair, eh?

Leigh was able to come home on the 5th and was back at work, but unfortunately the little guy will take some more monitoring before he comes home. As of now the staff still is saying that it will be about three more weeks for him to come home. He is fed and changed every three hours and Leigh is doing that. Fortunately the hospital is about 10 minutes from home and directly on the way to work so that schedule will have to work for a while.

Oh yeah, 4 weeks in intensive care ... about $1,000,000; unfortunately because of our poor health care system it will still cost the kids about $20,000.

Everett's new room when he comes home.

October 28th is always special as it is Dad's birthday. Especially this year as he was a young 94 years old. We went out to Cenare's Italian Restaurant which is a special place for all of us and then came back to our house for cake and ice cream for the birthday boy. Oh yeah, and a little champagne for all.

Pop is doing great and I guess we need to start serious planning for the 100th, eh!

On October 16th we went to the Temple/Salado area to attend the wedding of Katie Hueter, twin to Kellie, whose wedding we attended last year. Here you can see Katie and Grant with Kellie in the background. Beautiful setting right on the Salado Creek with a perfect Texas Fall afternoon.

Katie looking especially radiant.

I'll have to get the meaning of the cake topping, 'cause I have no idea.

John Neely trying to figure which of the Shiner Bock beers is better.

Harvey Hueter with the first dance at the reception with his daughter.

And Pat and John cuttin' the rug ... er, stone in this case.

This was a really neat night at the Tenroc Ranch in central Texas and we were super happy to be part of Katie and Grant's future.

On the 4th of October Mom and Dad moved out of their house of 42 years and into an assisted living facility, St Joseph Manor in Bryan, about a block from our house. This was a huge step both physically and psychologically however they have made the move and are doing extremely well.

This was the living room with all the stickers on the pieces that were to stay (red) and to go (green) for the movers.






And Pop giving the final orders to the moving crew as they departed 1602 Glade Street, College Station, for the last time.

Then the staging of the garage sale stuff ...

And then in the light rain Rich and Kerry at the garage sale to let go of the items that didn't make the cut for either storage or the new apartment.

All in all it was a pretty smooth move with Mom and Dad now happy in their new two bedroom apartment with a beautiful view to the northwest of Bryan. They have the freedom to do as they wish in the new place and yet have all the amenities of a first class hotel with nothing forgotten concerning their personal care.

Then we piled back into the bus and headed down to Austin for the wedding of Patrick O'Brien, son of Greg and Char, our long-time friends. Patrick is the oldest son and was born a month earlier than Leigh while we were stationed in Tucson in 1976. The wedding was at a chapel on Lake Travis and the reception here was at the Austin Museum Of Art.

Patrick and Annie with their first dance.

A really cool aspect of the event was the fact that Brooks and Leigh were hired as the wedding photographers. This was the first time we got to see them work and tried to stay out of their way; Leigh seven months pregnant and all. A truly gorgeous ceremony and reception and we were highly appreciative to be part of the guests!

Geez, I didn't realize they hired bouncers at the Catholic Church ... I'm sorry, actually it's Brooks taking shots in the chapel.

We wish the best to Patrick and Annie, especially with the honeymoon in Italy, we are jealous!

In spite of the fact that we had briefly been by Bryan to open the house, we hopped right back into the Flying Scotsman and headed back up to the Dallas area in the last week of September to attend the baby shower for Leighanne. Here's Mom and the potential GrandMom at the shower.



The event was hosted by a long time friend of Leigh and Leigh received a really nice selection of baby gifts to help bring the new boy into the world; this one was particularly cute for the photography parents.





For the week in the Dallas area we stayed at the Vinyards RV Resort we have stayed at before; is this view from California or what. A truly gorgeous park with large lots on lake Grapevine and plenty of amenities.

Way too many birds and way too much glass between me and them!!!

I just want to mention a couple of RV parks here for those of you who may be doing the Midwest. In Mount Pleasant, IA, is the Crossroads park, which is a brand new place with super level sites and local wine on sale in the office.





Then in Columbia, MO, is the Cottonwoods park. This also was a really nice facility right off the highway with paved roads, level paved sites, and nice, non-obstructing foliage. Nice place.






Because we had never been there we decided to slow down in Branson, MO, and maybe do a show. The hurricane rains were pretty heavy so we decided on staying two days to weather it out. We stayed at the America's Best RV Park in Branson. Well what a dump. It was rated 5W by Woodall's and a 9.5 by Good Sam. We really rely on the camp reports and normally they are spot-on but this was a disappointing exception. This place was so bad as to be one of the worst of our 3+ years and over 200 campsites and both the rating agencies will get some mail. The site was so un-level as a pull-through that we had to unhook before hitting the steep terrain. Once unhooked we still couldn't get level, our sewer spilled onto the next site patio it was so close, and the people on the other side had to sit with their lawn chairs in front of the car because the patio was unusable and filthy. We also were extremely disappointed in what was available at Branson and while we had a couple of very nice dinners, the shows weren't definitely not worth spending any money to attend. The park and Branson are old and tired and not worth going out of your way for.

Then on to the Checotah, OK KOA, and an example of a 5W resort that was level, open, large lots, and a really attentive staff. Gorgeous setting about a 150 yards from Lake Eufaula with fishing and boating. We have found that the KOA administration is really upgrading their parks or selling off the ones that don't want to remain state-of-the-art in RV experience; this one being one of the newer ones.

The next few entries will be quite disjointed as we have been so busy in getting back to Texas, opening the house in Bryan and then heading back for a week in the Dallas area.

Here is a shot of the street in front of Bill and Rick Martin's house in Meaford on the day we left which was the 1st of September ... Fall comes really fast. Unfortunately we left about a month earlier than in previous years and so missed the truly beautiful color display.





Although, a couple of days before our departure from Meaford, I was allowed to christen the new barbee with some burgers.

We are really back in Texas and arrived in the state on the 11th of September. Right now we are sitting in Arlington, Texas, at the Tree Tops park while Jo-Anne attends Leigh's baby (read GRANDPARENTS in December) shower in Dallas this afternoon.




We got back to our house in Bryan on the 13th, opened it up after about 5 months of vacancy, did Dr's appointments, RV scheduled maintenance, car stuff, hit fav restaurants, and did final arrangements for Bruce's parents to move to an assisted living facility ... whew ... and then hit the road to get up here by last night. Here's a shot of us at Buckee's on IH 45 yesterday ... no better roadside stop ... wonderful potato salad and chicken salad wraps!

Just after we arrived in DeForest, WI KOA on Monday, this machine arrived. It was flashback time as I thought we were still in Germany and watching the countless tour buses there. This thing is German complete with Deutchland license plates and is an amazing adaptation to the touring environment.

I looked at their website (Rotel Tours) and apparently the bus is shipped to the country of choice in advance and then the 20 "campers" are flown to the initial bus start point. Then for several days or weeks they live in this thing and tour the chosen country ... from Kenya to Russia and obviously here. There's 24 normal bus seats up front and then the amazing back.






As they unfold the tent part it becomes the sleeping and eating quarters of the machine. The tenants use the KOA washing and toilet facilities although those things are on board as well.






All the bus requires is a power hook up and water and they park in what is really a tent site. I'm not sure what KOA charges for this "tent" but probably get a per person add on fee.

A truly amazing bit of German ingenuity and a new twist for the RV business that I'm sure we'll see more of.