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!