Flower Time!

 

With a great 75 degree day last Sunday we headed over to the Dallas Arboretum on White Rock Lake to the east of the city.

 

And we took the three year old ... to the arboretum. OK little boys and flowers; but in addition to the 500,000 blooms like on the large peacock above there is a wonderful children's area ... smart idea.

As we entered the 20 acre children's section of the arboretum Mom had to go visit the facilities ... and so the grandparents took over ... shoes off ... run in the water ... pants soaked.

Oh jeez here comes Mom ... it's all G'ma's fault eh. Hah. And then even with squishy shoes he tackled the rope ladder ... getting him ready for the basic training confidence course in a few years. Actually he hit the thing and really went up the fence. You could see the bushes about 20 feet below a safety net ... but no worry on that face.

Then we entered the actual learning part of the children's area of the park. This is a wonderful display of many interactive events depicting how alternative energy is very practical ... all made possible by a grant by T. Boone Pickens.

The water, solar, and wind interactive events are fun and educational whether you are 3 or 13 or pushing 70 ... really well done and fun.

The last was a miniature wind tunnel. Sort of a telephone sized booth ... remember those ... sorry ... that forced air at about 70 miles per hour down on us. It was a hoot to watch Ev watch me as the air whipped our hair and clothes about. All about aerodynamics but we will wait for a couple more years to talk about lift and drag and all that really important airplane stuff.

Really fun day and we didn't forget the flowers either. Actually we'll be back a bit later in the spring to see it blossom more.

The Gunn B&B is now open in Dallas!

 

 

That title was especially for Bob and Julie but any and all friends and relatives are welcome in our new two bedroom apartment in The Turnberry Isle apartments.

 

While Dallas is a massive bunch of people covering hundreds of square miles we have settled into a small oasis for our winter headquarters.

 

We have disposed of around 100 boxes and moved the bulk of furniture into the apartment, leaving about 50 boxes to be dealt with in the garage ... it'll be some time before the HHR ever sees the garage.

 

The shot below is from the front window looking toward the kitchen with the entry door to the immediate right and TV to the left.

 

And as I walked toward the kitchen and turned around here is the view of the living room and the golf course beyond. The interior design was masterfully carried out for free ... sure glad I married her eh!

In the above shot, if you went to the far right corner in the picture, you would walk out onto the patio where the decorator is chatting.

And below is the view in the setting sun from where she is sitting of the golf course and another set of housing on the other side.

This appears to be quite a challenging course as every hole must cross a creek and some nice hills and a lot of oak trees. It's great entertainment in the evening to watch the many balls splash and crack against nature's obstacles.

And finally the main reason we selected this particular area in this mass of humanity. About a 50 yard walk from our front door are two of Dallas' neatest eateries.

A couple of days ago it was Coal Vines which was superb and we will definitely return and tonight it was Nick & Sam's.

The wine toast this evening was of a nice blend of syrah and cab but the food was the highlight. We first shared a buffalo chicken flatbread pizza ... wow. And then topped that off with a shared grownups grilled cheese with pear slices and ham; served with a cup of roasted pepper soup and salad. Perfect service and food ... which also can be eaten in the attached movie theater ... next time!

They Hauled!

 

Like I said we met the movers on the 7th and watched them crack open the two storage areas containing the 12,000 pounds or so of our stuff and then load it into a 40 foot moving van.

As soon as that was complete, in a cold drizzle, we hit the road back to Grapevine and the Flying Scotsman.

When we arrived it was the same 25 degrees it had been for the last two days and everything was frozen solid. Even the 100 gallons of fresh water in the tank was a huge ice cube.

Above the ever cheerful blogster is trying to thaw out the bus with a hair dryer. All this in spite of the fact that inside the RV it was still a nice 65 degrees and the water heater had been steadily cooking and the lower compartment lights were left on ... nasty north wind and very cold.

Friday night we did finally get everything thawed out and functioning again, rested for a couple of hours, got up early, and met the movers at the new apartment the next morning.

The Brazos Moving and Storage folks were again the absolute tops in professional moving and customer concern. This van was filled from the very front to packed tightly up to the rear door.

Once the tons of stuff were moved into the garage and the big pieces put into the apartment we said goodbye to the moving team and began the long term process of slowly moving the stuff from the garage into the place.

Here's Jo-Anne with the mound of packing paper as we began unwrapping the hundreds of glassware items in the many dish packs.

All the time we are sorting this stuff out we are making trips to the RV to clean out any of the things we have used in the last three years  as it was our only home.

And the current garage below ... no, no room for the car for some time to come.

Tomorrow we head back to the Flying Scotsman in Grapevine, do a final clean out of it before we then drive it over to the Camping World in Denton for a series of extensive repair events. More to follow on that, but now we have a place to flop our tired bodies as those repairs are carried out.

U-Haul, We Haul!

 

Yep, there are a lot of boxes stacked in the Flying Scotsman at the present. OK. Here's why. Here we go again. We have now signed a year lease on an apartment in the Addison area of Dallas.

As a result we will motor down to College Station tomorrow and supervise (watch) the movers extract our household stuff from its almost 3 year rest in storage areas. On Saturday we will watch same movers move all the stuff into the new place ... ought to be fun ... pictures will follow.

We have also called the Flying Scotsman home for the same period and must extract whatever stuff we need for daily living from the bus and cart it over to the new place ... on Saturday ... whew.

Then as we settle in to our new place in the Addison area the RV will go over to Camping World in Denton for a long list of warranty items before we begin the summer planning; for the first time without us having to live in it during the procedures ... nice.

And finally this is really a great shot of the "Bird Woman of Grapevine" and her flock ... at least 100+ followers of whatever she is proposing to the crowd; I think cracked corn and dog food were on the offering for today's presentation.

Love this place!!