Even More Celebrating

Tis the season for partying eh

 

Actually, on the 29th we gathered to celebrate the newest septuagenarian on the block and that is Jo-Anne.

 

We had a party in our new apartment and invited our new friends and neighbors to our place to congratulated Jo-Anne on this neat occasion. Here's the birthday girl with the spread of cakes and other snacks to feed our hungry guests. My beautiful lady hasn't aged a bit since we met and it's neat to have a lifelong friend and companion like her at my side.

 

We had a great time, good conversations, and sampled some different wines our friends brought. It was really great as no one had to drive home ... just take the elevator back to your respective floor.

And now to rest up for the final event of the year which is the New Years Celebration tonight ... which will be hosted by one of the couples here in the building. Nice not having to go out in the 19 degree weather which is predicted for tonight.

More Celebrating

 

After a few days back at our apartment in Flower Mound we headed to the kids' place in Richardson on Christmas morning to exchange gifts and say hi to Brooks' parents who had spent the night there before heading back to Alabama.

 

Here's the star of the event engrossed in another present. He had already been up earlier with his parents and had opened the Santa part of his gifts and then we arrived later for more exchanges. The beautiful tree and the miniature village on the server reminded us of earlier holiday times when Leighanne was this age and totally focused on each new item.

 



The young man is really into the "Snap Circuits" learning toys and within an hour of this picture had assembled the complex wiring and structure of this "Rover" and had it firing projectiles around the room with his remote control. Wow!

Then a lot of great food and talk with Judith and Larry Whittington. Brooks is in the kitchen ... not sure why ... and above the table is Leigh's new chandelier that was a Christmas present ... neat!

And finally a pic that Brooks took of their new creature, a Cornish Rex cat named Winston that looks here like he is pretending to be "The alien that ate Metropolis!"

Super, super time and the weather cooperated nicely for a really great holiday time with all the relatives to relax and enjoy some good time and conversation together.

Celebrating Wisdom and Experience

While that may sound strange, it's very appropriate this time to talk about Mom's 99th birthday and her 99th Christmas ... what a history!

 

Below are brother Richard and wife Kerry with the almost centenarian ... next year will be the big one or one hundred actually. We left Flower Mound on the 20th and motored in the car the 200 miles down to see Mom at the St Joseph Manor nursing home in Bryan. Taking the car and staying in a hotel is quite different for us when the RV was so much home for so long ... oooh motel beds and their linens ... miss the Flying Scotsman already.

 

Actually the Manor had their Christmas party on the 21st so we brought a few presents to Mom to be opened in the communal room of the home. After Santa got done with the public presentations we opted for a private room and treated Mom to some cake and ice cream and had her Christmas there.

 

Then we were back at the Manor on the 23rd for her 99th birthday. Sometimes when we visit she isn't spontaneous but this time she was funny, witty, and quite observant of what was going on and the presents we were giving her on this auspicious occasion.

For each card and gift Richard and I presented she had some neat comments and some really appropriate thanks to us for each gift. Notice the "99" on the cake which we soon demolished with her help as well as some ice cream. We just wish we were a bit closer to give Richard a hand and be with Mom more often at this point in her life.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Mom!!!

"ICE"

 

On the 18th we were treated by the apartment complex to the annual ice sculpture display at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine. While we had been to the Gaylord several years in a row to show grandson Ev Santa Clause and the other awesome Christmas decorations, we had not been to the ice sculpture part of the place.

 

Wow!

 



You enter a huge area divided into many rooms and passages all filled with different ice sculptures. The place is kept at a steady 9 degrees F so you didn't dally too long at each set of displays ... even with the blue Smurf outfits supplied by the event. Apparently the temperature is what is required for carving and to ensure it stays solid with all the human interaction nearby.

There were probably 20 different venues including this ice bar.

 

The frozen mice not even stirring.

 

And the old elf himself with his cool reindeer and some frozen toys.

 

 

Culminating with a manger scene and this beautiful angel.

 

The carving was done and this display has been here for about a month yet sadly within a week or so will literally be down the drain. We were really appreciative of the Overture folks who gave us the tickets and transportation to the place ... beautiful!

Creeping Cracks

 

As we rolled happily into Texas this fall we picked up a few new stone hits that eventually, with the change of temperature, really started to turn into some good runners across the windshield ... rats!

 

Once the Flying Scotsman was safely put to bed in its new storage facility we called the Good Sam insurance gurus and they set up a replacement team to get a new window installed where it sat.

 

Below is where the repair guys had just popped the top weather-stripping off .... and crickledecrack the whole thing started to look like a roadmap of cracks.

 



Here's a better view from the inside of the web of lines across the huge piece of glass.

 

Then as they took the old one out we had a really unobstructed view, eh.

 

As they parked the old one next to their truck I think one guy said, "That's one big window." I think it was about 250 pounds in the huge crate in the back of the truck.

And just about done. I had to help from the inside with the weather-strip as one guy poked and caulked all of the edges for a water tight seal.

$500 deductible and about an hour later we had a new window to watch the fascinating terrain roll by again ... although I'm not sure if I want to take the new glass out for a ride or not!

We're In ... Mostly

 

Almost a month later and we are mostly moved into the Overture apartment in Flower Mound Texas. Above is the front of the building and below is the view of the pool area with our apartment being on the top right.

Just about directly below us on the ground floor is the lobby and the bar area where we do happy hour at the far end ... really upscale design and artwork in the place.

In our place the high ceilings make the 1100+ square feet look bigger than it is ...

 ... but we have managed to fit a large portion of our stuff into the space and it's starting to look like home.

But before we call it "done" I guess we need to deal with the remainder of stuff in the garage here. We will try to sell the large pieces on line and then the kids will get a truck (large) and cart the rest to their place for garage sale, pick what they want, and then curbside the remaining scraps.

We haven't forgotten our old home though. The Flying Scotsman is in a storage area near here where we go out periodically to keep up the cleaning and restoration process of the machine. One of the next projects will be to supervise the replacement of the badly cracked windshield and that should happen in the next couple of weeks.

Moving

(Again?)

 

As we talked about over the summer we eventually worked out a place we would like to live for awhile and that ended up to be Flower Mound Texas, on the north shore of Lake Grapevine. We rented an apartment and a garage with the intent to get all our stuff out of the storage place it was in and see what would fit into the new 1135 square foot place and then deal with the rest.

 

On the 30th of October the movers showed up at the storage place in Addison, but not before we had moved some items ourselves over to the new digs and had a chance to sip a glass and work out all the bugs.

 



On the 30th the guys from "Dallas Best Movers" showed up (they had put the stuff in storage about three years ago) and began to load. Below is a picture of the van which, "holds a full three bedroom house" according to the moving company boss.

Unfortunately the truck is about full ...

... and there's a bunch more to go! Yikes.

As they were sealing up the truck I quickly went over to a nearby U-Haul place and rented a cargo van to get the rest of the boxes with the movers' help. Even that didn't do it as I had to jam the scraps into the overworked GMC to complete the task.

Here's Jo-Anne at our new garage with the first pile of boxes we had moved over before the truck could arrive. After they finished, you couldn't enter either the front door or the garage door as the stuff was piled high throughout ...

... even after fitting what we could into the apartment. In theory this will be the kitchen and dining area when the rubble clears.

And the blogger trying to make sense of a thousand wires; one which might be used to charge a phone.

And finally after a very long day the view from our porch to the south overlooking the pool.

More later when we get settled into our new home at the Overture in Flower Mound. But first we had to get the Flying Scotsman out of the Twin Coves RV park and over to a storage area nearby and then spend the first night, November 2nd, in the new place and give the bus a much deserved rest.

Back in the BIG T



 

With the new tires we again rolled southward on the Interstates and ended up at the Little Rock North KOA on the evening of the 5th. Weather still a nice 80 degrees and sunny making for good time on the big highway ... not necessarily our most favorite kind of road but needed to make a quicker trip this time.

 

We've been in the Little Rock KOA several times and the hosts are always gracious and prompt. We got the last spot for the evening as all the rest were booked and so had to take a back-in spot. Nice concrete pad though and the left side of the Flying Scotsman was against the woods so very private.

 

Up and off again at promptly 9am on the 6th and landed at the Shallow Creek RV park just north of Kilgore, Texas ... back in Texas after about 5 months ... and it's about 90 degrees! Again we've stayed at Shallow Creek several times and it is a very nice park with all concrete pads and roadways with a super pull-thru for our rig.

When we went to plug in the power though nothing happened. Because it was pretty hot we had been using the roof air conditioners all day long on the generator so I assumed they would come back on when plugged into shore power. Nope, no power at all. Potential problems: no power at the post, bad transfer switch that I had just replaced, or a bad wire to the RV. Put the gen back on, get a/c going again, and hunt down the manager. He came by and tested the park power which was good and so he was done.

Upon jiggling the plug I found that the power was clicking on and off ... bad plug. I took the plug apart and found that the wires inside were loose from their lugs and so when tightened up ... voila ... normal power again and a happy bus and driver.

On the 7th we motored down good ol' Texas highway 21 from Crockett to Bryan and checked into the Aggieland RV park to spend a couple of days with Mom and Rich and Kerry. As we were going to be very busy in the next couple of weeks or so we decided to hit the Bryan area on the way rather than going back down there quickly after checking into the Dallas area.

All the folks there were doing great so on the 10th we headed back up to the Dallas area. This time we chose a new park on the north side of Lake Grapevine called Twin Coves and run by the city of Flower Mound. Why Flower Mound? Because we have now rented an apartment there and plan to move in on the 28th of October.

Above is the view from our patio in this really pretty park right on the lake. All concrete and brand new just opening in July of this year.

Below is something we hadn't seen before. These folks brought their sailboat in, hooked up to the site power, set up their shade tent and chairs, and enjoyed a very pretty evening in their "RV," cool. The next day they had moved the boat to the water and the day after that were gone ... pretty neat though.

A fitting close to our arrival was another spectacular sunset over Lake Grapevine from our patio.

And tomorrow the 28th we go over to the new apartment to sign the lease and watch a new couch arrive. On Monday the real movers arrive with our massive pile of furniture that was deposited in storage several years ago. Sounds like work next week for the old guys!!

Blowout!

 

We left Michigan on the 3rd and did a nice 300 plus day in 70 degree clear weather. We ran around Detroit to the west on 636 then down 23 until we crossed the border into Ohio ... really a nice road and we made great time.

 

We spent that night at the Indianapolis KOA which is an older style KOA but with some nice long gravel pull thrus for about $35 ... not bad. It's right on I-70 to the east of Indianapolis so a very convenient overnight spot.

 

Then for another 300 or so mile day we headed south on I-69 toward Kentucky, planning to stay at the Outback RV resort which we have done before. Another pretty day rolling along 69, crossed the border into Kentucky, and about 40 miles short of the RV park .... Wham!

 

70 MPH on a fairly deserted section of Interstate with about 8 feet of shoulder and we rumbled to a stop. The inner right dually had disintegrated with pieces of rubber strewn down the highway. No problem you say as the outside tire was still fine and we could slowly motor on the 40 miles ... nope.

 



Here's the reason. As the tire blew (our direction of travel is to the right in these pics) it grabbed the mud flap and sucked it up and over the good tire. The flap is made of very rigid plastic and held in place by the piece of metal below with about 8 screws. Normally it would lay flat behind the tire, but as the piece of metal was holding it against the good tire I had to unbolt it and pry the metal frame up to where you see it below.

It took about an hour to get the screws loose and pry the thing off the good tire. The Kentucky State Patrol stopped by to make sure we were OK which was nice. Before my modification started we called the Good Sam Roadside Assistance number and they said that they would get us some new rubber.

After we limped into the Outback RV park using the back roads, the Goodyear guy showed up and by 8pm that night had replaced both tires on that side for $1535. The Outback park has some nice paved pull thrus which made the replacement easier and the bus, Indy style, raises itself up off the ground on the levelers which is handy. Super service by both Goodyear and the Good Sam folks who had arranged everything. The above pictures obviously were taken later on a good piece of concrete ... and oh yeah, that's a piece of shredded steel belted radial which I later found in the front of our car.

Off down the road the next day singing to Willy Nelson's "On the Road Again"!!

Rolling Southward

Whew! Yes Wanda it's been a really busy time for the blogger since we got back from the wonderful river cruise in France. We spent the remainder of September saying goodbye to friends and relatives in Barrie; mainly having some really great lunches and dinners as the season came to a close.

 

While the leaves were turning color a bit later this year, there were enough on the yard to make it look like fall had really arrived. Most of the beautiful plants we had this year were in their waning stages and so were dragged up to the forest to regenerate and recycle. One potted plant, sitting under the umbrella, that we bought in Texas before going to Canada was stored in the basement of the bus for the return trip; pretty hardy thing.

Then the process of getting all the stuff that was our patio crammed into the belly of the Flying Scotsman for the journey south. Some things like the deck bench were wrapped up and left behind for the winter and we'll retrieve them next May or so.

And finally when everything else was stowed the last items as always were the flag and our faithful flamingoes.

 

On the 1st of October we headed through Toronto for the last time this year and hit the border at Port Huron. We went through the Nexus line with the RV but as all the lines were really backed up for some reason, our line didn't go much faster; about 45 minutes to finally get through.

Rather than stop at the KOA in Port Huron as we usually do we went to a new park in New Baltimore Michigan on the shore of Lake St. Clair. We picked it because it was near the allergy clinic in Mt. Clemens and to where we would meet our new friends Jim and Carolyn from the cruise.

The RV park was quite nice with the short shoreline on the lake, but the sites were very short and narrow. Even with a 5th wheel outfit you had to unhook and park your tow vehicle elsewhere; not practical for an overnight.

Actually we stayed two nights allowing for shopping, allergy clinic, and lunch with Jim and Carolyn at a really neat pub. Above is a closer look at the lake with a nice fire ring and seating for the guests. There was actually a ladder attached to the lake wall so that you could swim ... the water was probably warm enough but we didn't go dipping.

On the evening of the 2nd we plotted our return route. We needed to make a quicker run than our normal leisurely pace because we had decided to rent an apartment in the Dallas area and needed to get back sooner.

Paris Encore and Au revoir

 

On the morning of the 9th of September we had a great breakfast, packed up our room, and the ship desk called a cab for our short ride just beyond the tower to our next hotel. This was our view that morning from the ship as we waited for the cab.

 

After a short ride we arrived at the Hotel l'Academie just off the Boulevard St. Germain in the 6th Arrondisement. The hotel was a mixture of old French charm and all the modern electronic devices we are used to today. A very large room by local standards and very well appointed.

The exterior of the place on the corner with dozens of cafes and shops within a short stroll.

 

And stroll we did. We hiked a dozen blocks in each direction looking a some of our old haunts and just enjoying Paris on a couple of cool but pleasant days. We walked over to the Notre Dame and Ille de Cite of course and also went into the department store called Bon Marche. Bon Marche literally translated means cheap, but the store is way beyond cheap. It has many floors of all the top named merchandise plus many art displays. The one below is a functional bicycle pedi-cab made from a 1940's Italian car that was cut in half and is for sale for a mere 39,000 Euros ($50,000 or so).

One day we spent touring the Musee d'Orsay which has the largest collection of impressionistic art in the world. The whole interior has been redone since we were there eight years ago but the Monet collection is as wonderful as always. We had to go back to the museum now that we had just seen most of the places that Monet captured in his paintings and it really brought them new meaning.

On the evening of the 11th we decided to have a nice dinner and simply went around the corner from our hotel to the Perron restaurant on Perronet street. Earlier in the day on one of our walks we had stopped by and talked to the owner and he said that he prepared sabayone as a desert so we were sold.

After a perfect dinner of Italian special dishes the food gourmet below samples this melt-in-your-mouth delicacy. This time consuming desert is made from egg whites, some vanilla, and sugar, beat for about ten minutes over a low flame, and the froth poured over some Grand Marnier until it flows into the plate below. Whole dinner of three courses and four glasses of wine came to 111 Euros or about $130.

On the morning of the 12th we went about a block to Boulevard St. Germain again for breakfast and stopped into the world famous Les Deux Magots restaurant. Below is an artistic rendition of the place of famous artists and literary greats.

Our waiter was charming and actually quite funny as he got our ham and cheese omelets, croissants and coffee. When we told him we spoke a little French and then that we were from Texas he said, "Ah you must speak Cowboy as well, eh?"

 

That evening we cabbed over to the Hilton at the airport, then next morning hopped our sleeper ride back to the US, spent another night at the Embassy Suites at Detroit airport and then were back in Barrie on the 14.

What an adventure that went perfectly for our anniversary ... where to next, eh!?