In Louisiana For The Holidays

Thursday through Tuesday
December 3 – 8, 2009

We got on the road at 9:20 after we said our goodbyes to all our friends. We were going to stop south of Houston. However, after talking to our daughter about the weather forecast for Friday morning which was snow and cold. We didn’t want to get stuck so we decided to drive through Houston and then since we were only 3 and a half hours from our house we just decided to drive on. We arrived at our house in Denham Springs, Louisiana at 8:40. Only a 720 mile day. I keep telling Gina that I havt to stop these long travel days. Anyway we decided to just sleep in our trailer since it was late and it had been a long day and we both just wanted to relax after our drive.

Friday morning after we woke up we went inside our house and made coffee. Once we finished our coffee I got our trailer turned around and backed in to its place since rain & snow was forecast for later this afternoon. We didn’t have anything planned for today since we knew it would be a day of visiting family. First, Uncle Jim stopped by and while he was there my sister stopped to pick Gina up and have breakfast together at IHOP. Around noon my brother stopped by and then a few minutes later my dad stopped. Gina arrived back home with my sister and we all visited for a while. Of course we took some pictures.

Me and My Dad


My brother, dad, and Uncle and of course me


Gina with her favorite Dads

While my dad was there Gina sweet talked him in going to get her some firewood so she could enjoy her fireplace. My dad got back with a quarter of a cord which should last us while we are here for the holidays. Gina then left to go shopping for a little while and then stopped by Wal-mart to pick up a few items. Once she arrived back home we got ready to grill steaks since Nicole & Shane, Rickey & Dana and my dad were coming over for dinner. We enjoyed a great dinner that consisted of steaks we bought during our stay in Nebraska and baked potatoes. After dinner we just sat around a glowing fire in our fireplace talking, visiting and watching it snow outside.

Gina says there's nothing like chatting by a warm fire


Shane, Dana & Nicole keeping warm by the fireplace


Dana showing her excitement with the snow falling


Shane & Nicole enjoying the snow


A little snow on our truck

We enjoyed a great day with family.


First thing Saturday morning once Gina woke up was she had to go outside and take a picture of our house so everyone could see that we really do get snow down south. Of course most of it had melted by the time she woke up.

Our House with just a little snow left on it

After Gina's picture taking I dropped her off at the beauty salon to get her hair done. I then went back home and took the Christmas tree out of the attic and put it up. I didn’t decorate it, I only put it up. Decorating is what Gina’s enjoys. Nicole picked her up at the beauty salon so they could spend some mom and daughter time together. Really it just gave Gina an excuse to go shopping for Nicole’s Christmas presents. I spent my time getting our DirecTV dish set up so I could watch some football. The satellite dish is mounted on my roof and after going up and down over twenty times and still not able to receive our local channels for some reason so instead I went down to my sister’s house and watched the SEC championship game between Alabama and Florida with Rickey, my brother-in-law. After the game was over I went back home to wait on Gina. Once she got home we went back down to my sister’s house to watch the Nebraska and Texas game. Another great game and I was disappointed that Nebraska didn’t win but it was close. Bo Pelini has done an outstanding job in the two years that he has been there. We then went back home and went to bed. I had a great day watching college football while Gina enjoyed her day shopping with Nicole.

We woke up Sunday morning and after we had our coffee we went over to MawMaw Sue’s for lunch and to visit with them for a little while. We then decided to stop by Nicole & Shane’s house to visit with them and I got to watch the ending of the Saints game. What a great ending. Can you believe the New Orleans Saints are 12-0? I sure wouldn't believe it. We then went to Wal-mart so Gina could buy two poinsettias for the house. Once we got back home we went up in the attic to get all our Christmas stuff down. We then sat back and watched a little TV while eating leftover Taco soup before going to bed.

Monday morning after we woke up and enjoyed our coffee Gina was off to drop Zoey off to get groomed. She also had a doctor’s appointment for Zoey but due to traffic in Baton Rouge she couldn’t make the appointment so she rescheduled it for tomorrow. While Gina was gone my brother stopped by to use my computer to get online. After he did what he needed he helped me get my satellite dish aimed correctly so I could start receiving our local channels. I had it close but close wasn’t good enough. He left to go back home and I checked on the shipping of my solar equipment. I got one item today but I’m still waiting on the rest. The weather has been nasty since we arrived back to our house Thursday night. Gina finally made it back home after it took her over an hour to go seven miles. If you don’t know it already I’ll tell you that you do not want to be driving through Baton Rouge after three o’clock in any direction. My dad stopped by and we worked on the design for mounting the solar panels. All I need to find now is a 30 inch linear actuator. This will allow me to tilt the solar panels up to 60 degrees automatically. I may not need to tilt them. However, I want to have the ability to hit a switch and they tilt automatically. Once my dad left Gina and I just relaxed on the couch watching Carrie Underwood’s special show on TV while listening to it rain cats & dogs outside. It has rained every day here in Louisiana since we got here and I’m getting really tired of it. I feel trapped. We still have one more day of it then hopefully we’ll have a few days without rain.

Tuesday morning we didn’t have anything planned other than Gina had to take Zoey for her vet appointment at 11:30. She went by herself while I watched it flood around our house. I don’t know the official rainfall. However, there were a lot of roads flooded out including three roads around our house which only left one way out. After Zoey’s vet appointment she dropped Zoey off by the house and then went to Hobby Lobby to do some more shopping. By early afternoon it looked like most of the rain had left the area. I decided to go visit some friends that own a tire / automotive shop. I wanted to see if they could get me some tires for our four wheeler. Anyway they didn’t have what I wanted. However, I still had a good time visiting with them. They own and operate the most honest and fair tire and mechanic shop that I know. From there I went back home. I received another piece of electrical equipment for my solar system. Slowly but surely all of it will get here. Gina finally made it home around six o’clock and we grilled chicken breasts to go with homemade Alfredo sauce. We enjoyed a nice dinner together. After dinner we discussed some of our plans for the next couple of weeks. Most of our plans all depend on and center around getting our solar system installed before January 4th. Other than that we just relaxed before going to bed. Tomorrow will be a decorating day for us. Gina wants to finish decorating our house for Christmas.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Happy Holidays To Our Retama Village Family, We'll Miss You All

Tuesday
December 1, 2009

I woke up this morning with my cold getting worse. Took some more medicine and crawled back in bed. There was no need to stay up since I could hear the rain falling on the roof. Gina and I finally got out of bed around nine o’clock and started the coffee brewing. With the weather terrible outside we knew it would be an inside only day. Besides that I didn’t want my cold to get any worse. Gina played on Facebook while I wrote and posted an entry to our blog. I don’t know how I caught this cold but I hate them. We discussed leaving here on Thursday since I wasn’t feeling well and it would allow us to take our time heading to our house in Louisiana. Outside of that Gina bounced between reading a new book by Mitch Albom titled “Have A Little Faith” and seeing what our friends on Facebook were doing. She just finished another book by him called “For One More Day”. I kind of played on Facebook but really I played with an application called networkedblogs. There are a lot of blogs that I read and I was looking for a way to see them all in one place. I already have most of them listed as links on our blog. However, what I wanted to see more is, if I could get facebook to automatically post an update on our wall when I posted a new entry. I finally got it figured out but don’t ask me to explain it. The functionality is greatly limited if you have not been confirmed as the author or if you do not have a minmimum of seven followers. Now I should tell you that instead of Gina and I having separate facebook accounts we just share the one account. We do this with our email too. It just works out better for us. By the time I finished playing with networkedblogs and reading all the blogs it was five o’clock. Ok, I might have had a little nap in there too. I asked what was for dinner and Gina said she was making chili. I said, Great since it was getting colder outside and I love chili. The chili tasted great at least from what I could taste. We watched a little TV before we both went to bed. Gina was reading her book as I told her goodnight.


Wednesday
December 2, 2009

I woke up and looked at the clock and saw that it was six o’clock and decided to just take some medicine and crawl back into bed. I must have fell back asleep since I woke up smelling fresh coffee brewing and Gina wasn’t lying next to me. I got out of bed and fixed me a cup of coffee and realized it was nine o’clock. Didn’t think I had slept that long. I decided to get online while I drunk my coffee. I always enjoy reading blogs and this morning was no exception. I did write a few emails while Gina wrote a few replies to some friends on Facebook. I was feeling a little better this morning but I still felt the pressure in my head. I looked at the weather and it would be clear for the next few days between here and Louisiana so Gina and I made the decision to go ahead and leave tomorrow. That put Gina in the pickup and stowing mode. I walked down to Mike & Pat’s and Mark & Dale’s to let them know that we would be leaving tomorrow. After that I walked back home and realized Gina was almost finished with the inside and I hadn’t even picked up the first thing outside. Now, I believe we had just about everything that we keep either in the truck storage or the trailer storage was pulled out. It was going to take me a while to get all this put away. I just started working on it one item at a time. The first item was to get the satellite taken down and get that secured in the truck storage. The next was to rearrange the trailer storage. That was a job since we acquired two new chairs and a new storage bin for can goods that is now stored in the trailer. Right after I finished with the trailer storage area Doug walked up and asked if I was interested in selling my spare Brakesmart controller. I said sure but I wanted to make sure it worked so we hooked it up and verified that it worked. All was good so he took it home. I then went inside only to find Gina baking brownies for our little potluck this evening welcoming Larry & Geri up at the clubhouse to Retama Village. I didn’t get everything loaded into the truck but it will not take me long to finish up in the morning. Around three o’clock Doug walked back down and said he called Brakesmart and they were backlogged and they couldn’t even give him an answer on when he would be able to get the required pressure sensor to go with the brakesmart I gave to him. So he decided to just give it back to me and that he would just go with a Maxbrake. If you want to read more about the two different brake controllers I recommend you read about them on Mark Bruss’s website http://www.dmbruss.com/. By this time it was a little before four o’clock so we got our drinks and the plate of brownies and as we walked out the door Dale & Mark were getting in their jeep. We were going to walk up to the clubhouse but since they offered us a ride we hopped in with them for a free ride up to the clubhouse.

After we enjoyed happy hour it was time dinner. Everyone brought their own meat to grill. However, with our colds Gina and I were not hungry. We enjoyed the fellowship with our friends and it gave us some time to tell them goodbye. I know that we don’t really say goodbye but rather we always say “see ya down the road”. We all live fulltime in our RVs and we know that we will see each other again. It still doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier. These friends are part of our family and we will miss them all and will long to meet up with them again real soon. We all took pictures in front of the Christmas tree tonight. Thought I would show you all some pictures of our family here in Mission Texas.

The Girls


The Guys


Larry & Geri Gustafson


Mike & Pat McFall


Mark & Dale Bruss


Doug & Jutta Franks


Rocky & Sheri Rhoades


Me & Gina

After the picture taking was done we said our goodbyes and caught a ride back home with Dale & Mark. After we dropped off our stuff at home we walked down to Mike & Pat’s since I told Mike that I would bring the pictures that we took tonight down to him so he could load them onto his computer. I also wanted to buy a new hardwire connection for my pressure pro monitor. We discussed meeting back up in February at their place in Congress, Arizona since we intend to spend the month of February in Arizona. We said goodnight and walked back home.

On a final note: There are no words that I can write to describe what Gina and I feel as we live this lifestyle or the people we meet. For us it’s like stepping back in time when there were no strangers just family members you hadn’t met yet. I still know friends of my parents that we met when we were camping over forty five years ago in our popup and we still stay in touch with each other. We are so thankful for the people we meet out here in our travels because without them this lifestyle wouldn’t be the same. Our family just keeps growing bigger and bigger and we love it and wouldn’t change a thing!!! We are grateful and feel extremely blessed that Our Heavenly Father is allowing us to live this lifestyle and for the people he brings into our life.

Our Final Sunset Here at Retama Village

(until the next time)

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Thomas Leaves and We Go Bike Riding

Sunday
November 29, 2009

We woke up at four o’clock this morning and brewed a pot of coffee while Thomas jumped into the shower. Gina and I enjoyed a cup of coffee together while we waited on Thomas to get dressed. We left for the airport at 5:15 to drop Thomas off for his 6:25 flight. He had to first get his boarding pass.

Thomas checking in

While we were there we noticed they had a beautiful Christmas tree and with that we just had to take some pictures.

Thomas before he left


Mom & Son Posing in front of a very Patriotic Christmas Tree


Me and Thomas

We gave our hugs and kisses to Thomas and watched him go through security before walking back to the car. Again I must say thank you to Mike and Pat for letting us use their car. They are wonderful friends. We left the airport and stopped by the gas station to fill up their car with gas. It didn’t need much but that was the least I could do to show my gratitude. Once we got back home I posted the blog and then we relaxed for awhile. Thomas called us at 11:45 to let us know he landed in Palm Springs, California and was waiting on a ride back to the base. They have a group of retired veterans who pick up and drive Marines back to the base at Twenty-nine palms. They do this for free which I think is wonderful considering the airport is 32 miles away from the base. I was going to take a nap but then we decided to go for a bike ride through Bentsen State Park. We stopped along the way to enjoy some of the wildlife and to take a few pictures.

Nice photo of a Golden Fronted Woodpecker


I just couldn't pass up this picture of this little guy


Beautiful Color for this Green Jay


Another Beautiful Green Jay

It was a nice bike ride but just not the best time to take pictures of wildlife. We stopped by Doug and Jutta’s place on the way back home to hear about the tarantula they caught last night. That is way too creepy for me. I hate spiders. Well we made it home just in time to walk down to Mike & Pat’s for happy hour. There was a new couple there today. Larry and Geri Gustafson, they own and operate Broken Arrow Campground located in Custer, South Dakota. Another nice couple we have met out here on our traveling adventure. We then left and walked back home to heat up some leftovers for dinner. Dinner was great again even though it was only leftovers. We decided to call it an early day since we both woke up early this morning. We really enjoyed having Thomas with us for the holidays and look forward to spending the Christmas holidays with our other children in Louisiana.


Monday
November 30, 2009

I didn’t sleep well last night and I know that I have a head cold since I woke up with my nose stopped up and my head felt like it was the size of a watermelon. I took some cold medicine and laid back down in bed until eight o’clock. I then got up and brewed a pot of coffee. I poured a cup after it finished brewing but it just didn’t taste right. However, the warmness felt good going down my throat. After I finished my cup I poured Gina a cup and brought it to her in bed. After she finished her coffee she asked me if I would bring her to the mall and just drop her off so she could look around. I said, sure since I needed to get out and deposit a check in the bank. I looked outside and it was raining and getting colder so I just decided to drive up to the bank and make the deposit and come back and pick up Gina since she was still getting dressed. I got to the bank and let me tell you that I have never seen a bank this crowded before. I waited in line for 45 minutes. Finally, I made it to the teller and completed my transaction. I then got back in my truck and headed back home. For something that should have taken less than twenty minutes it took me over an hour. By the time I made it back home it was raining even harder. Even though I took some cold medicine this morning I was feeling worse. Being that I have such a sweet and loving wife she decided to let me rest today and decided to not go shopping at the mall. I was glad she decided not to go to the mall. However, I felt bad since she got all dressed up. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I took some more medicine and just sat back in my recliner trying to let the medicine work. This has been the worst day since we have been down here in south Texas. It rained all day. Around five o’clock Gina decided to make some gumbo with the leftover turkey. She boiled the carcass and then deboned all the meat and finished up the gumbo. She let it cook for awhile and then she made some cornbread. When the cornbread was finished we both sat down and enjoyed a nice bowl of gumbo together. She is one great cook. After dinner we both relaxed in our recliners until we both decided to go to bed.

Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Having Fun With Thomas

Thursday
November 26, 2009

We woke up to a beautiful morning and sat outside enjoying it while we drank our first cup of coffee. We were so excited today. Not because it was Thanksgiving but Thomas, our son was flying over to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with us. He is stationed in Twentynine Palms, California and he couldn’t get a flight out yesterday so he’ll be arriving here today at 2:30. He called us at nine o’clock to let us know he was boarding the plane.

This will be our table

While Gina was up at the clubhouse to help setup the tables for our Thanksgiving dinner with all the other ladies here I wrote and posted an entry to our blog. After she got back I sliced up the turkey that I smoked yesterday while she got the homemade yeast rolls in the oven. I watched them while she took her shower. With only two ovens it was going to take us an hour to bake 32 rolls. After she got dressed I jumped into the shower and got dressed. While Gina was up at the clubhouse Mike and Pat McFall offered me their car to go pick up Thomas from the airport. They are such wonderful friends. It is people like them that make this lifestyle fun and enjoyable and are glad that we can call them family. I headed out to the airport a little after two o’clock to pick Thomas up. It was perfect timing as he just got out to the curb as I was pulling up. After I got a hug we headed to the clubhouse at Retama Village to enjoy our dinner. After the instructions were told to everyone by Jack he then introduced me so I could bless the food. Before I blessed the food I introduced Thomas to everyone.

A Very Thankful Dad and his Son


Retama Village Family

We then got our food and enjoyed a big Thanksgiving Day feast. I over ate like most I’m sure since I have a very low will power when it comes to good food. Around five o’clock we headed back home.

A Mom & Dad blessed to have their Son for Thanksgiving

We then just hung out with Thomas catching up on all the things he has been doing. We always get the overview on the phone and this gave us an opportunity to get all the details.

Thomas relaxing with his Angel

We didn’t get a paper today to look at the advertisements so Dale let us look at her paper. While Thomas IChat’ed with Ashley I looked through the ads. I didn’t see anything that told me to get up early and go shopping. I then got a turkey out of the refrigerator so I could inject it with a Cajun marinade so it would be ready to fry tomorrow. Gina then looked at the ads and she too didn’t see anything that told her to get up early. Not only was this our first Thanksgiving away from our house in Louisiana but it’s the first one without spending the day with Dana & Rickey, my sister and brother-in-law. We broke our tradition this year since we always eat Thanksgiving dinner at our house and afterwards we look at ads together and plan our black Friday shopping trip. All of us sat up talking until two o’clock in the morning. We just enjoyed hearing all the stories Thomas was telling. Thomas decided he wanted to sleep in the truck instead of the air mattress so he headed out to the truck as Gina and I went to bed.


Friday
November 27, 2009

Well, we didn’t wake up until nine o’clock this morning and Thomas didn’t get up until ten o’clock. He said he was sleeping too good to wake up. Gina and I enjoyed our coffee together enjoying Thomas being here with us.

Gina says you can't have to many hugs!!!


Thomas cuttin up with his mom

Around noon Thomas said he wanted to go shopping so he and I went to Academy sports and Sports Authority while Gina cooked another Thanksgiving meal. All the ladies decided to have a get together today at our place to enjoy leftovers from yesterday. Now I know there were a lot of leftovers. However, I asked Gina to make her cornbread dressing along with her sweet potato casserole. These two dishes are my favorites and it just didn’t seem like Thanksgiving without them. The ladies also decided that since we were eating over here that we should have happy hour at our place too. That worked out good since I would have to be here to watch the turkey frying.

Deep Frying a Turkey Cajun Style


Happy Hour at our place


Thomas and I waiting on the Turkey to finish

While everyone was showing up for happy hour I dropped the turkey into the pot of hot oil. It would be done at 4:50 just in time for everyone to enjoy some good Cajun fried turkey to go with the leftovers.

Mike giving me a hand


My First Deep Fried Turkey


Enjoying leftovers


Thomas enjoying his food with Dale

I’m not sure about everybody here but I over ate again. (isn’t that what the holidays are all about anyway?) After everyone left, Thomas, Gina and I decided to walk up to the clubhouse to play pool.

Thomas beating me at Pool


At least I won one game

While we played pool Gina was reading in the library.

Gina reading in the clubhouse

After Thomas beat me twice it was time for something different. We decided on Chess.

Thomas is thinking hard

That wasn’t a good choice since he beat me in less than 30 minutes. From there we walked over to the exercise room so Thomas could show off his muscles to us while Gina and I played ping pong and then Thomas and I played.

Gina missing the ball


No score for this game, we're just having fun

When we looked at the clock it was 10:30 and with that we decided to walk back home. We had another great day with Thomas.

Saturday
November 28, 2009

We got up a little earlier this morning since Thomas said he wanted to go shopping at the mall. We had to have our coffee first then we all left heading toward the mall around 10:30. We looked around for awhile and then left there and went to Cavendar’s western wear. Thomas was looking for a pair of boots and wrangler jeans. We finally left there and headed home since Thomas was hungry and wanted fried fish. While he was frying fish Gina and I walked over to Ron & Barb’s house for happy hour. We then walked back home at five and Thomas was finished eating. Gina rounded up Thomas’s dirty clothes so Gina could wash them. We both walked up to the laundry room and got his clothes going while he jumped into the shower. Once we got back Gina and Thomas got online surfing the internet. I went back up to the laundry room to put the clothes in the dryer and again after they finished drying. Around eight o’clock we all sat back and watched a movie. After the movie was over I kissed both Gina and Thomas good night and went to bed. It would be an early morning since Thomas’s flight departed at 6:25 in the morning.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Happy Thanksgiving ! ! ! !

Monday
November 23, 2009

I woke up again at five o’clock and made a pot of coffee. Gina says that I need to stop taking a nap in my recliner at nine o'clock. I’ll try to stay awake tonight and see if that makes a different. The problem is everything on TV by nine o’clock is boring and I just sleep while Gina watches TV. Anyway, Gina woke up around eight o’clock and I brought her a cup of coffee. Getting up early this morning gave me time to write and post an entry on the blog. She finally got up around 8:30 and said, “can we turn on the air conditioner”? I told her we can do whatever you want. So with that we shut all the windows and turned the AC on. We really just needed to get the moisture out of our home. We sat outside for a little while drinking coffee while Gina read me what everyone was doing on facebook. We both decided since it was so gloomy outside that it would be a good day to wash cloths. We gathered up our clothes and brought them up to the laundry room. They only have two washer and dryers and we had about five loads so this was going to take a few hours. That was alright since we didn’t have any plans today. I should say I didn’t have any plans. Gina had made plans with Dale to go shopping today. They left a little after twelve o’clock while I did our laundry. I was taking out the last load from the dryer when Gina stuck her head in the laundry room to let me know she was back. She couldn't have planned it any better. I told her I would be finished in just a few minutes and that I would just see her back home. Once I got home with all the clean clothes she tells me that happy hour is at our place today and after she told me that she said I have a surprise for you. She bought me some white chocolate truffles. I love white chocolate and these are my favorites. Gina also told me she was cooking homemade spaghetti for dinner. I have been craving this for some reason. She spoils me way too much and beside that she's an amazing women and a fantastic wife. We had a great time with everyone here at happy hour. Everyone left at five o’clock at about the same time a few rain drops began to fall. It didn’t rain but it was trying too. We went back inside and Gina cooked some pasta to go with her spaghetti sauce. I put a loaf of French bread in the oven. After the bread was done we sat down at the table together and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. The food tasted great and hit the spot perfect. Gina washed all the dishes before we sat down in our recliners to watch “House”. We watched a few other shows including a movie called “Unlikely Angel” starring Dolly Parton. Gina went to bed around eleven o’clock to read while I watched “Highlander”. I finally made it to bed at midnight. We both said goodnight to each other and with that we were asleep.

Tuesday
November 24, 2009

Well, I finally woke up a little later this morning. I slept in until seven which felt good. I got the coffee brewing and then turned on the water heater. We both needed showers this morning before we met up with our rv-dreams friends Jesse & Ginger and Ed & Marilyn. They are spending their winter in Weslaco, Texas at Llano Grande RV Resort. We haven’t seen them since the beginning of the year. After we enjoyed our coffee this morning we got dressed and headed out the door at 10:20 heading east. About five miles down the road the clouds opened up and the rain poured down. Even though I had been to their park before I still managed to get turned around. However, we did make it there by 11:30. After we exchanged hugs we went inside Jesse and Ginger’s house to visit. A few minutes later Ed and Marilyn showed up. We all visited for a little while catching up on what we all have been doing. It wasn’t real hard since we all keep blogs and we all read each others. We then all loaded up in Jesse’s truck and went to have lunch together. We went to Arturo’s, a Mexican restaurant.

Entrance to Arturo's


A Very Nice Restaurant


Gina, Ginger, & Marilyn


Ed, Jesse and me

They hadn’t been there since it changed names so we were all trying it together for the first time. Everyone got fajitas except for Ed which ordered fish. The food was alright. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either. The atmosphere was perfect for visiting which we did for alot of. The waiter kept looking at us like “are you all ever going to leave”. We finally left there around two o’clock. We stayed at Jesse & Ginger’s house for awhile but Ed & Marilyn left so they could go to Wal-mart and look at new cameras. They dropped their camera while at the restaurant earlier and it wouldn't work. The storm that we went through earlier finally made it there so while it poured down outside we continued our visit with Jesse & Ginger for a couple of hours. We said our "see ya down the road". We never say goodbye to our fulltime friends since we know our paths will cross again. We made it back home at 5:30 and decided that we just wanted to relax for the evening. That is exactly what we did until Gina went to bed at nine o’clock with her shoulder hurting. I sat up for a little while longer and then went to bed. Every day is a good day out here traveling. However, when we meet up with other RV-Dreamers it always turns out to be a real special treat for us.


Wednesday
November 25, 2009

I didn’t sleep as late as yesterday but it wasn’t five o’clock either. I grabbed a cup of coffee after it was finished brewing and then went outside. It was still overcast. I pulled out my smoker and then prepared our turkey. I started smoking it at 7:30 so it should be done around six or seven tonight. I sat outside for awhile enjoying that great smell of burning pecan wood.

I Consider This "Ultimate Relaxation"

As I mentioned two weeks ago the biggest thing I miss the most about traveling was not having the ability to smoke meat. Well that is no more since I bought this smoker.

My Smoker

I did find out today that the mini-split Air Conditioner I installed in our truck is a heat pump too. There is a story here but I would have to write too much to tell it. Let’s just say for the three weeks that we were in Kansas and Nebraska living in our truck without heat really made me feel dumb. Outside of discovering that I had a heat pump in the truck I spent the day sitting outside watching and smelling my turkey smoking. Gina spent her day cooking getting ready for tomorrow. I did pull out my big propane burner and boiled some sweet potatoes and a whole chicken outside. I didn’t get a picture of our propane burner but I’ll take a picture of it on Friday when I fry a turkey. By this time it was almost four o’clock so we grabbed our chairs and walked over to Mike & Pat’s. As always we enjoy the fellowship with our friends. We walked back home at five o’clock and Gina deboned the chicken that I boiled earlier. While she did that I checked the turkey since it should be finished smoking.

That's A Good Looking Bird

Gina was making chicken nachos for dinner tonight. This is something she learned from Ashley, our daughter. They tasted great. Gina is such a great cook.


Thursday
Thanksgiving Day

Gina and I, first and foremost want to wish all our family and friends a Very Happy Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for all the men and women who had dreams and were willing to pursue those dreams in creating this country we call America. Whether you are with family, friends or just enjoying special times together as a couple I ask you to reflect back on the history of the past 517 years since Columbus arrived here. But, more specifically the last 233 years since our Declaration of Independence was signed. Whether we agree with our elected officials or not, we as Americans have so much to be thankful for. We are able to enjoy what this country has because of those individuals who pursued their dreams to the extent of risking their life and many of them did lose their life because they believed that people should be free and have freedoms that only exist here. We take for granted so many things that we (Americans) just consider normal but for the rest of the world they will never be able to experience or comprehend the freedoms we have here. Our country was founded because people had dreams and we as its citizens still have dreams and the ability to pursue those dreams. I could write a lot more here but the point I want to make is we are able to live our dream because of men and women who pursued their dreams. All Americans are so blessed and Gina and I are extemely thankful for all the men and women who have served and are currently serving in our military. Without them we might not be celebrating today. Gina and I feel extremely blessed and with that we just want to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving and wish only the best for you all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!