Ho Ho Ho

 

That time of year is upon us so grandson Everett smiled patiently for the shopping mall Santa on Christmas eve afternoon, then gave him his list of potential toys he would like.

Actually the weather that afternoon was about 75 degrees and very humid and a full-speed slide into newly piled leaves was probably a lot more fun than sitting on the bearded one's lap.

After Ev had packed it in for the night, the Elves got busy and stacked the treats under the tree. It's a bit dark but the tree-topper ornament is a beautiful top hat ... cool.

The next morning the star of the event got busy. Last year he immediately ripped open every package that were identified as his. This year, as he is getting better at reading, he first read all the labels and stacked each recipient's pile neatly by that person; future engineer at work.

This year there were quite a few clever educational things to keep the very active mind busy.

Finally a really neat moment when Ev just hopped up into Dad Brook's lap and said,

 "I love you Dad!"

 

Then off for a breakfast of Grandpa's crepes and later after naps some wonderful ham and turkey in the afternoon. Super day for all the generations, young and old alike!

Happy Birthday Mom!

 

On the 19th we got together to give Mom a combination birthday and Christmas event at the St Jo Manor. As we were to head back up to Dallas for the grandson we had a mini celebration knowing that Rich and Kerry would be near our mom on Christmas itself. Hey 97 years young!

Above, we shared some birthday cupcakes that had candles that she quite expertly blew out (ignore the great white flash from my bald head) and proceeded to consume and then opened a few more things we had given her.

With Dad's passing, we were trying to keep Mom engaged in the things that had kept her busy in planning countless holiday events for the family, often numbering 25 or more, while doing her own schedule of bridge games, gourmet dinners, and faculty social events.

As we try to balance the College Station-Bryan events with the rest of our family in Dallas we are off to the kids and grandkids for their Christmas evening and morning. We left Aggieland on the 21st, fueled up at Kroger for $1.64 a gallon, stopped at the new rest stop on I-35 for lunch and then paused at the Burleson McLain's RV place for the state inspection ... yep gotta do that stuff.

Quickly passed inspection and then came to rest in the Sandy Lake park for the next month ... time to chill a bit and then plan 2016 ... but first Christmas and the grandkid!

Fixit II

 



After our hunt and try to find the problem at Camping World (nothing new) we decided to do some routine maintenance on the Flying Scotsman engine and chassis stuff as well as look at some age old problems and do it over at the Freightliner place about 30 miles from here.

 

Because the Jellystone Park we were at with the RV looked pretty good we booked one of their cabins for a couple of days starting on the 14th then take the bus over the next morning and get it looked at.

 

This is one of the duplex cabins at the place. This is a first class cabin with all the amenities including Jacuzzi tub and fireplace.

 

 



The style is truly Texas and really nicely done. The gas fireplace worked well, but as the temp was about 70 out it sort of tried to override the A/C.

If you did a slight right from the above pic the rest of the place was great. A really comfortable king sized bed and nice vanity area; all with the western theme.

The next morning I ran the RV over to the Freightliner dealer at the corner of I-45 and I-20. We wanted to get the annual oil change and PM stuff done and also to look at the still non-functional A/C dash unit ... hey gotta keep trying.

The view below is only a fraction of the hundreds of tractor cabs in this facility ... mind boggling as I took the bus there with the car attached. Then unhooked the car, left the bus in their care and went back to the Burleson area south of Fort Worth.

Anyway, the pros did their normal work and lubed us up for the next 15,000 miles as well as ran the A/C for 6 hours and actually did a test drive and it performed perfectly ... hah. OK, I guess I need to ride with the tech dude as we motor down the highway as the thing still blows out hot air even when it is on Max A/C ... mystery of modern science eh.

 

The good part was the stay at Jellystone. The two nights there were great in our cozy cabin and the fireplace and tub were a welcome vacation. On the 16th we packed up our stuff ... and tried to fool the cat into thinking we were just going out for a walk. He's pretty quick and managed to wedge himself below the bunks in the far corner ... OK remove the matt and box and get the broom, sorry Bandit, and finally "convinced" him to get in the carry case ... whew.

 

Anyway we piled all our stuff into the car, headed over to the Freightliner place, paid another $700, and headed south toward Bryan again to say hi to Bruce's Mom.



Fixit Time

 

On the 10th we moved into the Jellystone RV Park near Burleson, as it is close to the Camping World where we were scheduled for some repair the next day. Burleson is about 10 miles south of Fort Worth and we've been by there many times on the way to Waco and points south or east.

 

This Jellystone park is really cool. There are more venues for kids here from water slides to fire engine rides and then to adult places like luxury cabins with fireplaces and Jacuzzis ... cool. Below our site was a great level site with a large patio and grass area. While the highway is close by, not bad noise and super management ... $75 for three nights.

 

And the ol guys with one of the metal mustangs highlighted by some fantastic full fall foliage.

We got over to the Camping World at 8am as requested and started the process. We had asked that two things be looked at: a short in the power to the overhead lights, the LP gas detector, the map light, and the outside patio lights. They were also to look at the washer/dryer as it was not completing a full cycle as it should.

When you are looking for a short in the mile of wiring in one of these things it gets complicated and time consuming. They started looking at every wire from the fuse box to the front lights. In the process first they removed the microwave and all the wall material back to the patio light to look for problems.

Over the next six hours they exposed and looked at every wire and connection all the way back to the washer compartment and fuse box; here hanging out of the wall. Also here the washer is running through many cycles to see what it wouldn't do; finally needing a new solenoid or something.

If you look just below the washer in the lighter area, that light is where the furnace used to be as it has also been removed to see where the wires might be pinched from the box forward.

And where the boys are patiently waiting for news from the garage area. Bandit has again proved to be a very good RV and RV waiting room animal. For the seven hours he stayed on his leash and yet occasionally explored the entire showroom and when needed ate, drank, and used his box ... cool guy.

With the result being that the washer part is on order and the electrical short was found in the map light at the very front of the bus at about 4pm ... only $1,200 in exploration to find it.

After that all of us needed a drink, eh.

Back to Dallas sort of

 

After the funeral and all of the College Station-Bryan activity of last month we headed back to the Dallas area to regroup and work on the bus. We are in the Sandy Lake park in Carrollton. While it wasn't one of our most favorite parks, the nearness to our kids made up for it. They had a massive flood in the spring just after we left last year and the new infrastructure with paving and improvements has made it a lot better ... now if you could just remove half of the spots, there might even be room to put the awning out without hitting the neighbor.

 

While the kids were over recently we had a BBQ and had left the basement doors open to get grilling stuff out. "Anybody know where Everett is?" Oops ... busted!

"Is it OK if we don't tell Mom where I've been?"

 

 

Neat kid looking for adventure and now a more mature five years. He will start kindergarten next fall and is currently enrolled in the Primrose school and doing quite well.

Tomorrow we are off to Burleson, Texas to the Camping World there for some warrantee work diagnosis and then ... hah, actually don't know ... neat part of this life.

Tribute to the Man

 

 

While I try to keep up in a timely fashion with the travels of the Flying Scotsman and its inhabitants, the loss of Dr. Clare Gunn, my dad, has set us back a couple of steps.

 

As I reported in the last blog the onset of ill feeling and then his rapid passing really caught us all by surprise. We were staying at the Aggieland RV park since the emergency call and our friend and great host Chuck there let us stay until everything had been settled and taken care of.

 

Not that there was much to plan for as Dad had meticulously laid out every step that all the participants should do and the timing and manner that it should be carried out. The viewing per his wishes was conducted on the 29th of November as we had to wait for people to try to get to College Station through the busy Thanksgiving holiday. The viewing was at the Trevino-Smith Funeral Home and a close friend of Dad's, Patti Wade, took care of everything. Patti's father and she had had coffee and donuts at Shipley's for over 20 years every day of the week with Mom and Dad. Extremely professional and very attentive staff for the four hour visitation period and we got to talk to many of Dad's friends from around the area as well as some who had come across the country.

 



 

As the weather was still about 55 degrees and rainy on Monday the 30th, we held an indoor ceremony at the Rest Ever Cemetery in Bryan. Again the funeral home came through with a wonderful service which ended with the four boys each being presented with a rose taken from Pop's flowers on the casket ... really moving.

After the internment was complete we then headed to the A & M Methodist Church in College for the memorial service. Again, the format, songs, scriptures, and speeches were totally prepared and scripted by the late Clare Gunn in incredible detail; he had also written the detailed obit for the local paper. For both the internment and the memorial service he had requested that "The Saints go Marching In" be played as he was an avid jazz follower. I'm sure the 150 or so folks attending the service at the church were surprised to watch us singing the tune as we all filed out of the place ... pure Dad.

After it was all done we went back to Rich and Kerry's place to reflect a bit. One of the memorabilia we had retrieved from Dad's room were four of the rope bolo ties that he quite often wore when a real tie was not needed. We drew lots and each son got one of the ties ... I think that's the first time I had ever worn one of those. Thanks Pop for the memories as they will live forever!

The End of an Era

Dr. Clare A. Gunn born October 28,1916

 

On Sunday the 15th of November my brother Richard called and said that our father had passed out and that he was in emergency. Later that day he called and said ... "last call, bro." It was about as succinct as it could be and we packed up the bus and drove down to the Bryan area to see what was up.

 

The old professor was in the ER first and then they said that there wasn't anything that they could do in the future for him as he was in pretty dire straits physically, but no effect mentally.

A couple of days later we transferred him back to his room at the St Jo Manor Assisted Living unit where he had lived for the past 5 years. He looked stable and talkative so we hired some help to make sure he was comfortable but still thinking that this might be only a temporary pause in his long active life.

On the 18th I went down to the nursing unit and got Mom and brought her up to Dad's room for a chat as she hadn't seen him in a couple of days and he hadn't gone down to see her as he usually did every evening to watch their favorite TV programs together ... 74 years together!

Over the summer Dad had drawn a pen and ink drawing of the Flying Scotsman RV in his usual meticulously perfect style and had it framed as a future gift for me.

As we are in Bryan infrequently and the moment seemed right I said, "Why don't you present me with the picture instead of waiting for my birthday or some future occasion." He said that was great and told me to get it out of the closet.

He talked about the drawing and Mom was also engaged in the conversation during the presentation. All the paintings and drawings in the background were done by him, some dating back more than 60 years and the subject of a few were back to 1928 ... a really long time.

We chatted for a bit till he looked tired and then I took Mom back to her room down the hall and went back home ... and at about 3 am the next morning (November 19, 2015) he passed away ... tough to say any more other than we all will miss him ...

Ghosts, Goblins, and ... Ninjas

 

We went over to the kids place for Halloween to see what this year's creatures would be and what grandson Ev would be for the evening.

THE GREAT NINJA WARRIOR

 

 

Above, the young Ninja Warrior is being prepped for his night's activity .... trick or treat, eh, with papa Brooks and grandpa Larry helping the future candy-snatcher. And then below other Star Wars and Ninja looking big and little people got into the neighborhood act of whatever recent character was more important to the adults in the crowd.

 

 

Some of the costumes were off the rack and some were pretty creatively done from the leftovers in the garage.

And even one young lady with a LIVE boa which we had to coax Ev into touching ... but the girl was really totally into the snake handling and acted quite professionally in her role as the snake lady.

Then below is the neighborhood group of goblins in the local park. Our Ev Ninja is at the lower right in the group in the black outfit.

We watched the ninja trick or treat .... quite funny and entertaining actually ... until it got dark and really enjoyed the Richardson neighborhood organization work with the kids and the local park ... great local stuff and super kids just having plain fun acting out the action hero stuff .... neat!

Soggy Birthday

 

Like we have every recent year we decided to head for Bryan for Bruce's Dad's birthday on the last week of October. We reserved a site at the Karstens RV place in College Station where we have been before. His birthday was on the 28th yet we had arranged for Leigh and Brooks and grandson to come down on Saturday night the 24th, go to Cenere's on Saturday like usual and go home after the great occasion. Well, it began to rain ...

 

As we left we had to stop at the Walmart in Addison to pick up prescriptions and then on the way in the pouring rain.

 



As we went through Corsicana on the way down to Bryan it began to rain more and later Friday night it had rained more than 14 inches ... wow ... with derailed trains and massive flooding. Eventually Interstate 45 and 35 were closed that night due to flooding.

We were lucky and moved into Karstens to the rainbow view below. Soggy park but high and drained well so that we were free of the heavy rain and flooding.

With both interstate highways closed heading south the kids couldn't come down to Bryan for the annual celebration on Saturday night.  OK we had to ensure the kids could cancel out of their hotel and then we planned for plan B for pop for his 99th on next Wednesday the 28th.

To help us decide what to do we went over to Messina Hof Winery for a break. We had their goat cheese and salami plate with a couple of nice Temperanillo wines which allowed us to make some plans.

With some coordination with the staff at the St Joseph Manor we arranged to have the birthday party.

OK this is the 99th ... let me say this again THE 99TH BIRTHDAY ... pop has been doing stuff in this world for almost a century ... wow!  We would have rather had the party at Cenare but because of the nasty weather we cancelled the normal dinner at Cenare and worked out a place for us to host pop with less attendees.

Here's brother Richard and myself with the old dude who continued to regale us with stories of cousins and work acquaintances as we had a really neat birthday cake and a couple of presents. It was sad that mom couldn't make it but she is not quite as responsive as the old boy here is ... but holy cow back to the almost 100 year thing ...

After the annual celebration of life in the Bryan area we headed back up to the Dallas area along the favorite two lane highway 14 toward Mexia.

Below for our lunch entertainment was a caracara which is an unusual but not rare roadside visitor.  These critters work with the vultures to help the Texas Dep of Trans keep the roadside clean but also will get their own prey as they are really in the falcon family.

And then finally back to Plano and the allergy shot for Jo-Anne. Fortunately (not for them) Calloway's garden center has a big parking lot that we can park in and Jo can run through the hedge and get her shot while I pretend to work on emergency repair to the RV ...

Back to Aubrey to chill and repair and clean and repair and clean etc for a bit at the Shady Creek RV place.

Back in the Lone Star State!

 

On the 19th of October we arrived back in Texas and settled into the Shady Creek RV park located between McKinney and Denton on the far north side of Dallas.

 

From Decatur to Dallas is about 650 miles so we split the difference and stayed in Little Rock at the North Little Rock KOA we have been to before. We departed Decatur on US 72 to the west on a really pretty sunny Sunday and that trip to Memphis was really relaxing. Then onto the boring Interstate for the rest of the trip to Little Rock and the next day ending up in Dallas.

 

The book below is the trashed remnant of this year's Good Sam RV directory reflecting its constant use over this summer's travel. We're calling this summer the Great Circle Trip from when we left Dallas in April to our recent arrival back here now.

 

The Great Circle part of the journey began in Dallas in the spring and we put on about 2200 miles getting up to Barrie Canada. For the trip from Barrie back to Dallas we went 5539 miles in 30 days, consuming about 650 gallons of diesel; added to the trip up is about 8000 miles of roadway adventure. We now have 48,000 miles on the Flying Scotsman II and it has performed admirably yet is now due some much needed cleaning, inspection, and normal maintenance .... and rest.

We'll also rest a bit and see the Texas part of the family and begin planning the next part of the adventure.

Huntsville

We were headed for Huntsville to see our friends Todd and Diana who work for the Army at the Redstone Arsenal post there ... actually now just Todd as Diana just retired. We tried to get onto the post in their fam camp but it was booked way in advance due to the space camp and other space activities in the Huntsville area.

 

We had stayed at the Point Mallard RV park in Decatur which is about 20 miles to the west of Huntsville before and so we went over there. They have added a couple of new rows of big-rig back in sites which were sort of level so it worked out OK. Their senior rate for the two nights was a whopping $40 ... total ... $18 a night plus tax ... cheaper than the base.



 

Diana whipped up a fantastically fresh baurenfruhstuck (sp) German farmer's breakfast the next morning and we had to have a long nap after that. Later we went back to their place, actually in Madison, for the evening.

Here's Todd and I sharing a toast before we went out to destroy some meat on the BBQ.

And then Jo-Anne also by the massive bar. This thing is a free-standing walk through mahogany bar that they brought from Germany. We enjoyed it in their house in Germany and it fits perfectly in the place here in Alabama. It had to be disassembled, pieces numbered, and then reassembled upon arrival in the States. I don't think we have ever seen anything similar in a home ... priceless piece of woodwork!

And then the boys with the brats getting them ready to mush with the sauerkraut with ample wine and beer ... yup it's October.

Lastly our super hosts with the wine toast of the day. Actually our dinner was early as Diana was shorty beginning to prepare another dinner for several relatives that began to arrive as we were departing ... long day in the kitchen for her.

Good food and good friends. They were just stationed in Egypt before coming back here and still own a house in Piesport Germany right on the Mosel river that we have visited and talked about before ... maybe next summer we might get back to that beautiful place.

Lake Martin Alabama

 

Lake Martin is located in east-central Alabama and about 60 mile northeast of Montgomery. It is a large lake an recreation area popular with fishing, camping, and other water related activities.

 

The view below is from the Maxwell-Gunter Rec area after we finally found the place and got settled into our new lot. I was out on the dock by our site and the evening and views were beautiful.

 



When we checked in the attendant said that it should be quiet on this point of land as we were the only ones planned to be there. There were about a dozen sites and three cabins and as he departed he said that he would leave us alone and lock the gate to the park behind himself as he left about 7 PM ... cool.

For the night we renamed this piece of property "Gunn's Point" as we were the only residents. This is one of the major advantages of our type of travel and we were rewarded with our very private lake location for the 20 dollars. The picture above is as you looked down the point of land past the RV sites to the cabins and the lake in the distance ... man, where is that kayak or canoe now?

And below, as you stood in front of the cabins, the view up the hill to the entrance of the place.

As we took our nightly walk along the shore we happened upon this guy looking for some dinner near our dock.

On the 16th we pulled the hoses and plugs from this really neat site and again headed north along US 431 toward Gadsden and our next destination of Huntsville and friends there.

Before you get on 431 though you pass near Mount Cheaha which is the highest point in Alabama. The road leading up to this scenic overview point is about 20 miles of steep curvy road but very spectacular terrain. That's Mount Cheaha in the distance on this 68 degree day. Lunch in Gadsden in the JC Penny parking lot and on to the Point Mallard park in Decatur near Huntsville.