Fond Final Farewell

To

The Flying Scotsman

The Flying Scotsman adventure is over but we will continue to travel and post our next adventures on this site as long as we can.

This May we sold the Damon Astoria to the I-35 RV Super Center in Denton Texas ending our motorhome experience but all of the adventure in both RVs is still posted here if you want to go back through the years.

The legacy began in April of 2007 when we bought a Forest River Georgetown gas rig and sold the house in New Braunfels Texas and headed off to the unknown. We had the leased Pacifica so dragged it behind the Georgetown on a tow dolly. That first year we roared up to Meaford Ontario for a month or so, then parked the RV and did two months in Europe and then continued westward around North America including the Canadian Rockies below.

After 26,000 miles in the Georgetown in April of 2010 we traded it in on the Damon Astoria which we have lived, loved, and traveled in for the next 66,000 miles. Here is a shot of the new Damon looking out at Georgian Bay in Canada near where Jo-Anne's parents lived. We had also swapped the Pacifica for a new HHR tow car.

Our travels through the balance of the 12 years on the road included winters in Texas ...

... to summer in Key West ...

 … and to Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia ...

… and several long Arizona stops along the way with many mountains to climb and of course the Pacific northwest below.

Always making our summer stop in Ontario where for the last seven years we have lived at site C-13 in the Barrie KOA for 5 months at a time to continue to be near Jo's Dad who is now in Barrie.

Lots of fond memories of the motorhome life in almost 100,000 miles in the 12 years which generated many new friends along the way and gave us a taste of places we never would have seen from the hotel room or automobile.

What a wonderful trip it has been!  I'm sure we will miss the old bus from time to time but there are more adventures, food, and wine to explore as you have seen from the last couple of posts and more blogs to let you know what we are up to.

The Little House in the Barrie

In March we contracted with Mayfair Suites to rent an apartment for the month of May. This is the house right downtown across from the public library. The house is divided into two apartments; ours on the left with 1,100 sq ft and the one on the right with about 1,600 sq ft.

Below is our view out the front window of the place from the living area. You can see the winter state of the trees as we arrived in the first week of May.

And then the view out of the rear window by the back door to the parking area and a small yard and patio with grill.

Looking the whole length of the kitchen and living area toward the front. All the amenities like dishwasher and laundry machines are included for the monthly rate of about $1800 US.

The biggest drawback is that the single bedroom and bath are located up these 17 stairs … whew! Actually our legs are getting in pretty good shape from all the up and down runs.

And lastly the blogger in the modern bath facility, relaxing with the Zoomer magazine (AARP equivalent here) and a bottle of Stella ...

Very responsive landlord and nice company to work with. They have about a dozen properties here on Barrie and then more on down toward Toronto.

Chop Jobs

We mentioned the urinary problem that Bandit was having but because of the thick matted fur on his rear we couldn't see if it was just the hair or something else. Above and below are what the hairy dude looked like upon arrival.

So off to the local vet for a haircut and then once that was done see if anything was wrong with our travel mate. There is a vet about two blocks from our rental and it happened to be the VCA chain which is throughout North America … pretty convenient. Used to be an old church on Bayfield street.

In order to shave Bandit he always has to be sedated (bad attitude and sharp teeth) so the haircut and doctor look-see was about $200 CDN. Below is what the boy looks like without about 5 pounds of fur; kinda funny looking in his "lion cut". The friendly staff at VCA did find a small tumor the size of your small fingernail on his rear that was interfering with urination and that had to be removed and sent off for analysis.

So back to the vet for a day of surgery for another $1400 CDN ($1060 USD) and he was back home.

One more trip to have the stitches removed this week and all will be well. Although he probably could use a tummy tuck eh. Happy cat = happy humans!

On The Road Again

On Saturday morning the 27th of April the three of us packed up the Terrain in Flower Mound and headed toward Canada for about a month. All week Jo-Anne had an increasing headache and now a bit of fever … maybe just stress.

No stress so far on the Bandit though as he really does like to travel (we thought).

By the time we got to Little Rock in the pouring rain the fever had started to go up to about 101. We got into the Holiday Inn Express on the northwest side of town and put Jo to bed while I unloaded cat paraphernalia (half the stuff in the car!) and our stuff for the night.

There won't be any more pictures for this blog and trust me you wouldn't want to see them.

About 8 pm we watched the fever go up to 104.3 and Jo got in the tub with some cool water as I researched some local hospital emergency rooms (the Baptist one near the hotel had excellent reviews). After the tub though the fever was down and she slept great and by morning the fever broke with a sweat and we said great it's all over.

Our next destination was Paducah and by afternoon the fever was again up a bit but the present problem was nausea. Cat also was not too happy with the adventure and tiring of the litter box on the floor of the car decided that anywhere in the back seat would do just as well.

We rolled into the Drury Inn in the rain and settled into our room. Jo-Anne continued to be quite sick to her stomach an the cat was using the whole room as a urinal. I did get something to eat as the Drury offers free drinks and food in the evening.

On the 29th we apologized to the hotel for the massive pee on the bedspread and they were overly nice and said have a nice day. All the characters in this play did not change on the way to Indianapolis which was the next stop and another Drury because the last folks were so great. Not much change that evening with the exception that the headaches started to return with a vengeance and the cat must have had less to drink.

I know … long story … trust me it was a long trip for the sole healthy and happy crewmember who so far had no bathroom issues and actually lost a few pounds which is not all bad.

After another 250 miles on the 30th we pulled into the Drury Inn in Troy Michigan and again not much change to my partners. We picked the Troy area because of the pet friendly hotel and that it was near to the hospital in Mt Clemens (McLaren). The next morning with no changes we went over to the ER and got some excellent care. After a CAT scan, many drugs to stop both the blinding migraine and nausea, back to the hotel to sleep it off. Initially there wasn't much abatement in the symptoms so we decided stay again in the same hotel … nope said the clerk … all booked up. Found another hotel in Roseville that would take the pee-prone pussycat and we checked out and into the new place, another Holiday Inn Express … whew.

So then on the 2nd with the wife feeling very much better, the cat now recognizing a litter box, but something wrong with his rear end for sure, we motored up to Port Huron and a extremely uneventful border crossing and landed in Barrie Ontario that afternoon.

Southfork Ranch

On the 11th of April our Canadian friends Morgan and Jeannette came by the Dallas area on their way home. They had spent the winter in Arizona and were now working around the weather to wind their way back to the KOA in Barrie by the 1st of May when it opens.

In addition to happy hour and a couple of new dining venues we decided to go over to the Southfork ranch of the TV hit series "Dallas." We had never been and thought we would see what the old movie set might look like. Here is a PR photo of the iconic front gate.

And a postcard pic of the back of the house. As everyone says who have been here, it is a fairly small ranch house and was a real working ranch before it became the site of the TV series. The producers made a creative blend of what you see here and movie magic done in Hollywood sets. An example is the supposedly Olympic sized pool in the series and yet the real one is quite small … lots of mirrors involved according to the docent.

Again the real patio above which in the show hosted scores of people eating and drinking as well as below in the dining room which was quite normal.

There are three bedrooms upstairs with this being the master. The other two were used as sets in part of the show which was supposed to take place in a Mexican hotel.

Then the bath which was quite ornate and quite pink!

The bull in the foreground is the last one which was seen in the show and is over 30 years old. 

We were out there on a cool blustery day so we saw less of the outside venues on this ranch than we could have on a nice hot Dallas sort of day.

So while corny from a TV point of view, we learned a lot about the production of shows and how they blended the reality of a Texas ranch and mega-sized it for the series. Actually there are many Texas ranches and ranch homes which make the one depicted in the show seem small by comparison.

Our friends had a great time and after some more wining and dining in the Flower Mound area were off to their homeland on April the 18th … after the obligatory stop for repairs to the RV in Elkhart … yup.

2019 Gets A Late Start

We go a bit behind the start of the new year for a bunch of reasons. The biggest reason is that the Flying Scotsman is no longer, making for a bit of lifestyle change for us. The bus was sold in May leaving us with the little Terrain to do our traveling in. 

But let's get started at the beginning with a nice picture of our kitchen area in the Overture apartment at Valentine's day in February. It was about then, over some nice wine, we started plotting and planning the events of this new year.

We also ordered a new "noodle board" or sink cover to match our décor and so we didn't have to look at the dirty dishes in the sink as we ate at the island.

And then a nice sunrise off our balcony. Bandit spends many hours curled up there in his bed watching the people, dogs, and birds cavort below.

At this point, with the RV gone, we began to make new and different plans to back to Canada in May. Obviously we had to tell our friends at the KOA that we would not be back … at least to the campsite. We still needed to get back to Barrie for at least a month to work with Jo's 96 year old pop and her brother.

While that's probably all too serious we will still engage in the travel, wine, and food posts here and hopefully continue to have a bunch of fun and adventure in the process. The Blogger is back.

Lett's Go!!

Happy Holiday Season 2018!!

 

We wrapped up a great year (pun intended) with quite a few events during the month of December, the first of which was the Ugly Sweater Contest ... it doesn't get much uglier eh. Here's the blogster and Jo-Anne and our great friends for over a year now, Connie and Gary. Actually from the 30 or so participants Bruce won first place with his biker sweater outfit and $25 at Buffalo Wild Wings; just proving he was the ugliest there! Dig those tattoos.

 

Then a bit of karaoke with our DJ Andy and the girls with a rousing version of "Santa Baby."

 

With the silliness almost over we ventured to the kids' house for Christmas Day as we have for several years now. Leigh and Brooks have made an amazing transformation of the house over the last year and it really looks super, especially for the holidays.

Then the part that Everett waited for very patiently ... no, not necessarily the presents themselves, but the ability to rip the wrapping off and dive into the pile like he does with the leaves outside ... fun. About a minute after the nice pic below he was under a massive pile of paper ... moving too fast to shoot.

And we couldn't ignore Winston on that bed of fake snow that he assumes was put there just for him.

Finally the last wine toast of 2018 which was a really busy but fun year ...

... filled with travel, great friends, awesome food, good health, and a view of what we are going to do in 2019 operating out of our new home in Flower Mound Texas.

And a Happy New Year To All!

 

 December Bits and Bites

Leigh and Brooks wanted to celebrate their 20th anniversary in Las Vegas so over the weekend of the 16th we had Everett as a guest for two nights. At 8 his main forte is arranging, sorting, or counting things, so what better than our 500+ wine corks.

 

However, obviously, I didn't quite get the proper sorting technique down, but with a lot of guidance I finally passed the test.

 

Then over to Lego Land where we had a super time building all kinds of things from houses to race cars. Then next door to Sea Life Aquarium where we spent a lot of time with the animals. We got to watch them feed the sharks which was a hit and then pose with the Moray eel ... yellow face behind Ev. Ewww that thing was big and ugly and yet shared his nest with another eel, wow.

On another occasion we went over to the Aviation Heritage Museum with Ev and his mom and dad and had a nice afternoon exploring this nice selection of aviation artifacts located on Love Field in Dallas. Here's dad and the future pilot checking out the accommodations.

 

And finally here is Chef Bruce demonstrating how to cook a phyllo dough brie ... hah ... actually I was the student in one of our cooking classes ... and Jo-Anne is laughing as my brie was oozing in the oven.

 

More to follow as we move through the Holiday season and wrap up the busy yet fun year of 2018.

Fall Review

 After we got back from our Big Bend adventure we immediately rolled into the very active life in this apartment complex. First up was Halloween and the mandatory costume party.... well. I went as the eagle below. While a good idea and got raves at the party it was HOT and I could only stay in it inflated for a few minutes ... maybe a different idea next year.

 

Jo-Anne rummaged through my old duffle bags and came up with my desert uniform for the occasion; actually looking quite good, even though she had her slippers on inside the boots to make them fit. We made her name tag to read, "GI JO". The party and dancing though were great though and a lot of fun, even though I had to shed the giant eagle outfit ... lost five pounds in sweat.

The next we headed south to Bryan to work the final estate sale for my parents' remaining property and it was work but fun as usual. The highlight was seeing brother Bill from California and made even more special because he brought new friend Zack, and they make a perfect couple and we hope we can see more of her in the future.

We did dispose of a lot of stuff at the sale and also had that last chance to bring home treasures like these bronze shoes ... remember them?

 

And Dad's desk that he built in 1943 and used constantly until he passed now has a new home in our apartment and is Jo-Anne's new art center for painting and drawing.

 

 

On Veterans' Day the Overture apartment management dedicated a Veterans garden complete with flagpole and future bricks in our names, which was a really neat gesture. Below are Doug, Gary, Larry, Tom, myself, Lonnie, and Bud; representing many years of military service from Korea through very recent retirements ... what an honor.

And to wrap up today a nice shot of the little stream behind our place on a nice fall day ...

... with today being about 33 degrees and a mix of winter precipitation, a nice shot indeed. We'll get to 2019 eventually but have more of 2018 to add to the blog before we wrap up a really busy yet fun year.