Settle in & back to August

We've only been back in Retama for a few days but it feels like we haven't been gone. We are so enjoying the sun and warmth here, except this morning it did get down to 40 degrees, but you know what, it didn't feel cold to us at all. Not sure if that was a good thing.

Thursday we just worked on getting things settle and doing laundry. That night we were invited over to Dave and Linda's for ribs and baked potato's. A perfect evening of eating outside and getting caught up with each others summer.

Friday, we had the perfect day weather wise, bright blue skies - slight breeze - temps in the 80's and low humidity. Right after daylight we went for a walk around the park and if we go down each street its' 1.5 miles. Good walk without having to leave our park. Than we jumped on the bikes and did the same route. Later that morning Linda road along with me to Walmart for a much needed grocery run. It is so nice getting down here and not having to pay the terrible prices in Michigan. The only thing I really saw that was more here was the price of milk.

While I was gone Larry worked on putting the awning up. It takes awhile for him to put all the supports in from the trailer to the edge of the awning and attaching the arms to the cement blocks but now that it's secured we won't have to do a thing until we're ready to leave in the spring. With the local forecast calling for above normal temperatures this winter it will be nice having the awning out all the time and not having to worry about the wind.

Here's our lot with the awning up

Tonight (Saturday) we had a little pot luck at Dave & Linda's place with Lon and Pat. You may remember me talking about Lon/Pat this summer as they live in Belding MI and we would get together once a month for lunch. As always a good time.

I was telling my sisters that when we drove in here on Wednesday it was like going back to August. All the flowers were out and everything was a lush green. So this afternoon I took a few pictures to share with you of ours and the neighbors plants.

This is our planting bed

Beautiful rose bushes on Donna & Grants

This is Marilynn's and Gary's flowers

And another neighbors bed

click on any of the pictures to in larger them.

So that fills you in on our first few days back in Texas. Larry and I went for a bike ride this morning after coffee hour at the clubhouse. We ventured outside our park and went did a nice 3.5 mile ride. We also made a quick trip over to our other trailer to check things out and everything was fine.

That's it for now. Time to call it a night. Till next time................................

Arrived on our lot in Retama - Mission - Tx

I think I'm going to call it a early night. Didn't sleep well last night, guess I was excited about getting down to our lot, or it could of been the Dr Pepper I drank late in the day. Which ever I'm glad I was able to get 21 TV Stations even if 18 where in Spanish. At least it gave me something to do, try and figure out what the show is about.

We were on the road by 8:30 with only 240 miles of no large cities and very little traffic. It took us about a hour to get off I37 on to US281 which is a nice four lane divided hwy and I think there was four little towns we had to go through. It was pretty foggy when we left but by the time we arrived here the sun was out.

One of the things I forgot to do was buy traveling groceries before we left Michigan. Actually that's not all together true, I did buy these groceries about 4 times and every time we ended up staying another week. With everything going on with the house last week I never gave it a thought until we were on the road. But thanks to our SIL Stint who gave us a care package before we left, we had goodies to eat while driving and beef and noodles last night.

A couple of unusual things happened today. A old beat up pickup passed us with a coffin in the back. Who knows what or if there was anyone in it but that's a heck of a way to go on your last drive. Than all of a sudden we hit a swarm of bee's and it looked like huge rain drops on our windshield. The only reason we knew it was bees was there was still some hanging on. The last thing was we came up to some slow moving traffic and the hold up was a house being moved down 281 and covering all the lanes. That was a first.

We've had friends stop in and tonight we went out to dinner with Doug and Jutta Franks. We went to one of our favorite places and had my baked potato with all the fixings, yum and of course happy hour was on so had to have my frozen margarita - double yum.

The park looks nice. Can't believe how all the plants and trees have grown over the summer and everything is a deep rich green. It looks like there's a lot of new places so tomorrow we'll take a walk.

That's it for now. I'll probably go back to posting on Wed and Sundays unless something interesting (at least to me) comes up. Till next time..............................

San Antonio Tx

We arrived at Braunig Lake Resort about 2:30 after leaving Caddo Mills about 9am. We always stop at this park as our last night out and usually our first night out. They always remember us, but than not to many people forget the big green machine and when I call they make sure they leave their longest site open. Super nice people and the park is good but each time we come here there seems to be a few more long term ones. The sites are close together but other times we didn't notice how close cause the place was pretty empty. Right now there's a 5th next to us and if we put our bedroom slide out it would be over his grill. Granted it's a concrete patio but the guy could put his grill to the side instead of right on the edge. His site sure is a turn off on wanting to stay here any longer than one night.

I was watching the weather up in the mid west and back home in Grand Ledge today. They really got hit with strong winds and some tornado's. I was reading our nieces comment on FaceBook about hoping none of the old trees come down on the house. Larry reminded me we now have one of those 100+ old trees in our back yard. I really didn't need to be reminded of that. So far the neighbor hasn't called so guess it's ok.

We on the other hand had a perfect day for traveling. Sunny, warm and what wind there was was coming out of the north so helped our gas mileage. I think we were just outside of Waco and traffic was down to one lane and barely moving. Don't no what happened but a semi was laying on it's side along the road. Larry heard it on the CB almost a hour before we got there and they still hadn't cleaned it up. Lots of police around tho.

Well we almost got through Austin without a scare. I think I've mentioned several times I just hate that city. So much traffic and you go right through town. Anyway just a few miles outside and about the time I was beginning to relax we had to do a panic stop. As I put on my FB - we now know that all sixteen tires can smoke at the same time. Larry asked me later if I looked at our car to see if anyone hit it and I said no the pickup was far enough back and that's when he said there was a car between us and the pickup. It must of gone off to the side cause I sure didn't see it. Never did see why everyone hit their brakes. So much for me being relaxed.

Don't no what I was seeing yesterday when I looked at our Streets and Trips map. I thought we had around 240 miles today but it was 300. But tomorrow it's 237.9 miles from here to our door step so we should be home shortly after noon. Depends on when we get out of here. And there are NO cities to go through. We take 281 after getting off 37 and it's a divided hwy with very little traffic and just a couple of little towns. My kind of roads.

That's it for today. The next blog will be from our lot in Mission. Can't wait!!!

KOA Caddo Mills TX

We left W.Memphis around 8:30 and stopped at Loves for fuel, 127 gallons at $3.02 - ouch - but not much you can do about it. One of the great features of having our Visa & banking at MSU Cr Union is they have a travel site on our account website. So before leaving I always post the travel dates, directions and in the comment part put down at least one large fuel bill charged to our account. The only time we've gotten a call from Visa was the first time we filled the truck up, took them about 20 minutes after charging $500 to call.

There were some strong storms around us yesterday & last night but we never got into them. Right now we are going down I40 heading for Little Rock and the suns out. In checking the Interstate Travel site it's suppose to be windy again today but only a 20% chance of rain all along our route.

Fast forward to 6:30pm. We arrived at here at the KOA in Caddo Mills TX about 3:30. The wind really picked up but most of the time it was partly cloudy out. Only got into construction just before we got off the exit for this place. But the roads in AR sure were rough. Oh for any of our RV travelers we don't normally stay at a KOA but this one has huge pull thru's and no trees.

I get excited when we arrive in Tx but than I remember it still takes us two days to get to the valley. Tomorrow is a travel day I always dread. We only go about 240 miles but it's around Dallas, straight through Austin (the worse) and San Antonio. Larry keeps telling me to just close my eyes - ya right - like that's going to happen. If I did that who would warn him about the brake lights a half mile ahead.

Weather wise it's suppose to be much better tomorrow. Winds are calming down and shifting out of the north so the mileage should be better. And sunny skies. Oh I was looking on the weather forecast for Mission and Tropical Storm Richard is suppose to visit us on Thursday. Figures!!!

Larry is a happy camper. He changed out of his big boy pants and said he's NOT putting them back on.

Guess that's it for tonight. Till next time........................................

Tom Sawyer RV Park W. Memphis AR

Ever since our friends the Bruss's introduce us to this park we have been stopping here each spring and fall. It's a little off our route but sure is worth it.

Here's one section of the sites. 5th Wheels park here so the back windows faces the River

Nothing like spending a quiet time sitting next to the Mississippi River watching the barges go pass.

We left Terre Haute around 8:00 this morning after a quiet night at Walmart. Normally there are at least a couple of other rigs there but not this time. That's not all bad cause we always seem to have a motor-home park in front of us with their generator running all night. I can handle the noise it's the fumes that get me.

Shortly after leaving we crossed over to ILL and into Central Time. I always like gaining the hour, especially when it's going to be a long travel day. We went 397 miles today, way more than a lot of our friends do but Larry says he'd rather be driving than just sitting around in the middle of the afternoon. I don't usually mind it but today the winds were terrible and our gas mileage was down to 6 mpg. So it wasn't a pleasant driving (for Larry) and riding (for me) day. Just hope tomorrow is better cause we have just over 400 miles to Dallas.

Before leaving tomorrow we need to stop and fuel up. Ugh - so hate it when we do that - or at least my bank account does. Guess that's it for today. Till next time.......................

Day 1 - Terre Haute IN

We are finally out of Michigan. I was beginning to think we were going to have to take family members up on having Turkey Day with them.

Left the nephews place at 9:20 this morning. It was cloudy and a bit misty out but there wasn't anything stopping us. There was some construction but not bad until we got about 20 miles north of and traffic was stop and go. There was a flashing sign saying right hand lane closed ahead and people were actually staying in the left lane even tho you couldn't see any yellow barrels. We went like this for almost five miles (really have to give the IN people credit) with everyone staying in the left lane and finally came up on the barrels. There was one concrete patch and the right lane wasn't even closed off as long as our rig. And of course there wasn't any workers around. What a pain.

Did I ever mention how much I hate going around Indianapolis. A few years ago we started taking the northern route around the city which is much better. It's mostly industrial so you don't have all the malls and business that bring more traffic. Even tho that route is better I still rank that right up there with Dallas and if they ever get the highway construction done it will be great.

Once we got through Indy there wasn't any construction but I70 isn't the greatest. Pretty rough in spots. About that time Larry asked me to get on ESPN website to see about the MSU game. I found the up to date broadcast but have you ever tried reading play by play broadcast when your going down a bumpy highway at 60mph and the website is constantly scrolling all the game results. Talk about eyes spinning and nerve racking. That ain't ever gonna happen again. He can read the results when we park for the night.

We arrived at our favorite Walmart Campground just east of Terre Haute around 3:30pm. It's cloudy here but the temperature is 77 degrees. We went inside as we always do and asked permission to park over night. There is a subway there and since I can never eat on the first day of traveling I was ready for dinner. Than we had to pick a few things up.

There are always posts on some of the RV Websites of people calling others cheap for parking in the Walmart lots instead of going to a local campground. For many of us with rigs like ours it's hard to find a campground with long enough pull thru's and it's a pain to unhook for just over night. But as for calling us cheap I wonder how often someone gets out of Walmart without dropping $30-$50 so in that respect it could be cheaper to go to a campground.

That's it for our first day. Tomorrow we'll head for West Memphis AR. Till than....................

The roof is done & we're out of here

This morning I went out to get in the car to go to the house and this is what my car looked like. Granted it was sunny out but that was a really hard frost. My poor car never did thaw out, the temperature gauge is stuck on 32 degrees.

The guys finished up the roof by noon and while I did some last minute errands Larry dumped the holding tanks and got the truck hooked up. I'd gotten the inside done yesterday before going over to the house so not much to do in there.

Tonight Brandi, Anissa and Darrius came over and we went over to the A&W for dinner. Always hard saying goodbye to the kids.

So the plan is to leave in the morning and get to Terre Haute IN at our favorite Walmart parking lot. We are both so ready to get down to our lot and to warmer weather.

That's it for now. Till next time.......................................

New roof started

I've set up a album on our webshots and will download remodeling pictures there. So if your interested in seeing them click on the "house".

We started the new roof today on the house. Wasn't able to get started until after 10am as Dave had to take the utility trailer to the dump. While he was there we went down and pulled the building permit and did a few things at the house. After Dave came he and Larry figured out what materials would be needed than we took off to the local Lumber Yard while he got started taking shingles off.

I've come to the conclusion that I can't handle watching a roofer. Just to high up and too far down. When Larry and Dave went up and looked at the roof the section over the kitchen was in worse shape than first thought. so instead of just doing a batch job we decided to just do it so it's done right.

Larry helped Dave and I did my part by being a clean up person and gofer. They are forecasting rain tonight so had to tarp it. By the time we got home we decided we're both too old for this. Luckily Dave's helper will be there tomorrow and that will help.

So that's it for now. Nothing too exciting. Till next time....................

Cabinets Purchased

The last couple of nights it's been pretty chilly and Saturday morning there was frost on the roofs. Really don't want to see that. The day turned out beautiful with sunny skies and temperature got up to 60 degrees. We went for our walk and we were going to treat ourselves to a Quality Dairy choc covered roll but when we got there there wasn't any. Bummer and we were so looking forward to one after our walk.

The week was busy spending money. I'd forgotten how many little things you have to buy, broom/dust pan, trash containers etc, we keep thinking of all these things we just gave away and now have to buy again. Of course we talk about different things that need to be done and it seems like the projects all seem to bring up some type of tool that may be needed. I guess I can't complain these tools are a whole lot cheaper than having to hire all my ""I'd Like this" jobs done.

I mentioned in a prior blog about taking a design into Menards for a kitchen lay out. We got a email from them and went back in on Thursday so see the cupboards and do some changes on the design. Two hours later we had the cabinets picked out and a new design done. We didn't plan on ordering them this year but they were having a great sale and would save close to $800 so we went ahead. Will have them delivered and put in the living room till we are ready for them next summer.

Last night our grand daughter Anissa spent the night. Over nighter's at gr-ma/pa's place are few and far between with our 16yr old. Of course it makes a difference when the 16yr old has been grounded, gr-ma's house is really looking good. But like any grandparent we'll take when and what we can. It's hard to find spare time in a teenagers life for grandparents.

I've been reading on our friends blogs and Facebook about them heading south or arriving in Retama. We are both so ready to get down there and settled. The last few years we were one of the first ones to arrive and the way things are going we'll be one of the lasts. Hopefully we will be able to join them soon and enjoy the happy hours and warmer temperatures.

Today we went over to the house to work on the leaf pile. I'd notice that many of the homes had their leaves piled along the street. Once the leaves are 50% down the city comes around with a huge leaf collector and cleans them up. Fred our new neighbor (by the way we have great MI neighbors) told us they would be starting this week. So while Larry did the last lawn mowing I raked them on a tarp and pulled it out to the curb. Well after only two trips and hardly a dent in the leaf pile I realized we would have leaves from the street to the house. Not good. So Larry got the blower out with the bag attachment so we could mulch them down. While we were there our cousin Pam stopped over so we gave her the 10 cent tour. Pam and I use to have a five hour lunch to catch up each summer but the last couple years we haven't been able to. So we're glad she decided to go for a drive and see if she couldn't find our place. We met Larry and Stint there last so they could see the house. Stint mentioned that we're in the perfect location for her girls to stop by in between picking/dropping off their kids at activities. Both Amy and Tina live out in the country and sometimes there just isn't enough time between pick ups and drop offs. So for all our nieces and nephews you are always welcome to just drop in without calling ahead.

No pictures today. I figured you've had enough of the color tour and streets. That's about it for now. Till next time..............................

Beautiful Fall Colors

With everything going on with the house lately we haven't been on a walk so the other day we parked at the house and hit the sidewalks. We needed to stop at the City Hall which is only three blocks from us and than headed down some streets and over to the City Park. I've wanted to get some pictures of the color in our neighborhood so I took the camera along with us and will share a few pictures with you. If you want to see more please go into our Webshots.

Such a gorgeous tree next to this neat 1900 home

This is looking down our street.

A friend posted the following pictures on FB of some of the color in our area.

So even tho we are almost a month late on leaving Michigan it really is something to see all the different colors and weather has been perfect.

Did some shopping today for the house so check back in a few days and I'll fill you in.
Till next time........................................

Yea Spartans - Raising the Patio - Gazillion Leaves

One of the good/bad things (and I'm sure I'll find many more) of getting a house is you seem to always be busy either doing something or going someplace.

Saturday afternoon was spent in front of the TV Set along with lots of other people watching the MSU-UM Football game. Dawn is a big MSU fan and she's a lot like Larry, you can always tell by the verbal sounds on how the team is doing. Of course we had to put Sparty out so everyone driving pass the house new who we were for.
It was such a perfect day that Davie brought the big TV outside and we all (around 10 of us) sat outside enjoying the weather and eating munchies.

Sunday was fairly quiet. Brandi and Anissa came over for a little while than took them over to see the house. Anissa picked out one of the upstairs bedrooms for her's and is starting to plan what color she wants to paint it.

Monday we went into Menards and took the measurements of the kitchen in so they could do a design for us. Since the kitchen is small I wanted to get some ideas of a lay out and see if they come up with a better design than we've thought about. That afternoon we stopped at the house and while Larry was working on some of his projects I thought I'd try and rake up some of the gazillion leaves on the ground. That thought lasted about 15 minutes than told Larry I'd be right back. Went to the local ACE Hardware store and bought me a high power leaf blower.

Click on the picture and you'll see the pile of leaves in the background.

This picture was taken the next day, look at the leaves that came down over night. And that darn tree still has a lot left. I know I'll have a job next spring cleaning this pile up but I'll figure that out than. I've notice several high school boys in the neighborhood so maybe I can hire them.

Today we had a Concrete Raising & Leveling Company come over and fix our back patio. The concrete has settled and was lower along the house so water couldn't get away, which means water in basement. What a great and easy way to get concrete level again. They drilled holes in different areas of the patio than pumped a mud-concrete mixture in it. This mud would fill under the concrete and raise it up. Lots of going from one hole to the next and using the level but in less than two hours our 6x20 patio was level and no more water going into the basement. It's not cheap, cost us $500 but still a whole lot cheaper in dollars and physical labor if we had to remove it all and pour new concrete.
Larry got a price to have the concrete in the garage raised and we'll probably do that next year. For less than a Thousand Dollars they will raise the flooring. Can't beat that!

While waiting for these guys Larry started taking the kitchen cabinets down and we moved them out to the garage. I couldn't handle the counter top so that and a couple of the bottom cupboards are still inside waiting for our special friend Mike N. to stop to see the house and he'll feel sorry for me.

Guess that's it for now. Till next time...........................................

It's Official - We're home owners

With all the stress the last three weeks on this house we were a little apprehensive going into the Closing. Especially after reading so many articles on Yahoo and the News about banks stopping foreclosure's and closings. Before going to the closing we stopped at my old office and finished up the paper work for insurance, haven't seen a premium that low in a long time. Can't figure out why one 40ft trailer should cost so much more compared to a full size house with all the bells and whistles. Anyway finished that up and headed to the Mid State Title. Ten minutes and four signatures later and we were done and owners. We have a pretty good "To Do" list and the first thing was:

Changing the locks on the doors
Second - get the lawn mowed

Did you notice the t-shirt and shorts and this is Oct in Michigan - loving it.

This is going to be a short one. MSU-UM Game is about to start. Not that I really watch it but hard to concentrate with screaming and yelling going on. Till next time...........................

Warmer days - Frustration Continues

This week has turned into beautiful fall days with above normal temperatures and sunny skies. Don't get me wrong, nights still require blankets but I'm only using three instead of four. The sad part is we've been out for a walk when it's in the high 50's and actually enjoyed it.

The other day we went out to the Apple Orchard again. The apples are just sooo good and we had the last one over the weekend. Had a nice drive there than stopped over to my brother Larry's place. We knew they would be out in the fields working but I wanted to see the table Stint purchased at Houghton Lake when we had our sibling weekend. If I'd of known we would be buying a house I would of bought it. Just a neat table and Stint has it sitting on her porch.

I may have to sneak over there some day when they are in the fields and steal it.

I tried to get some pictures of the trees out in the woods when we were driving but the color didn't show up very well. So here is the tree outside our door
We went over to St Johns yesterday and had lunch with our son Alan than stopped at a couple of antique places on the way home.

Frustration continues on the house. Title Company finally got all the paper work they needed and closing was good to go. Matt called us to see when we could close on Friday - my response - anytime. So we're waiting yesterday afternoon to get the final closing costs and the time to be at the Title Co. Nothing!! Thursday morning - figured we'd hear something early - nothing!! Called Matt at 10:30 and left message, email back he was in closing would phone shortly. OK so maybe this other closing kept him from forwarding the closing statement. Nope!! Matt called and said they (he, other real estate, title Co) had been sending emails back and forth all morning because the Closing Statement wasn't correct. It seems that $9,000.00 was missing from the EMD (Earnest Money Deposit) shown on the closing statement and the Title Co. was saying they never received a wire transfer. Now doesn't that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling.

They said they only had the $1,000 we originally gave when we submitted the offer.
OK - 1) Their counter offer was requesting a $5,000 EMD, no problem but since we didn't want to do two wire transfers from that account we wired $10,000.
2) The $1,000 deposit they said they had - they didn't. Since Matt new we had wired the EMD to them he gave us our check back.
3) Matt and the other Realtor both were given confirmation that funds were transferred and these were forwarded to Title Co.

Have I mentioned that this Title Company is also an attorney's office. Matt sends me a copy of all the emails and right now I believe we are on the 4th person in that office. Like my sister says "And they get paid to do all these mistakes". Probably big bucks, heck I could mess things up for a lot less $$.

It's now 3PM and we finally get the corrected Closing Statement with the full EMD showing. We are now good to go on the balance to be wired. Not feeling to confident on sending more money to this place but not much I can do about it. Luckily our niece works at M. Lynch and tonight she brought me all sorts of documentation of the transfer.

When Larry's brother was over earlier I told him that I really needed to start happy hour early today and to let Gail (SIL) no I may start without her. Which she was so accommodating and showed up shortly after David went home.

YAHOOOOOOO UPDATE - It's 6:30pm and just got a call from Matt. Everything set - closing at 9AM tomorrow. But trust me I will be taking every piece of paper that I have in my possession to this closing.

ONE BATTLE DOWN - now on to the next one - Our local Electric Company. Won't bother you with details but I believe I'm on person #3 and think (we'll no tomorrow) I have it straighten out.

Can anyone explain to me why it is so difficult to get these banks and companies to take your money without problems?

That's it for now - Hopefully the next post we will be able to say we are officially sticks and bricks owners. Till next time............................

Birthday Wish -Frost - Frustration

First we would like to wish our son Alan a Happy 42th Birthday today. Sure glad he's the one getting older and not us. Unfortunately he has to work today but we'll have a birthday lunch this week with him.

Every morning when I stick my nose out from under my four layers of covers I keep thinking we are not suppose to be here. We haven't seen October in Michigan since 2005 and even tho the trees are turning and I'll give you they are pretty, I'm not liking these cold nights, I want my Texas 90 degrees. OK, maybe I'm stretching the "cold" in the house a little more than it really is but anything below 70 degrees inside is not acceptable in my humble opinion. We have the furnace's set at 65 and Larry kicks the electric heater on in the living room when he gets up so it's fairly warm by the time I show my face but the fact is the only heat we should be using right now is Mother Natures and she sure isn't listening to me here in Michigan. And this "frost" crap is really not suppose to be in my range of tolerance.

So by my grumbling you may have guessed we haven't closed on the house yet. Everything is completed except for the representative of the bank that owns the property has to sign off. So here's the count so far - Bank in Nebraska that foreclosed on the house --Realtor representing the bank located in Lansing -- Realtor representing us also in Lansing- Title Company representing Nebraska bank that's located in Detroit - and now the Lawyer who has power of attorney for the Nebraska bank to sign off on the deed which we have to idea where he is located at. One good thing this week is someone went to the house and mowed the lawn. It was starting to look pretty bad and I was tempted to take ours over there and just do it.

I do have a couple of pictures to share with you. I spotted this guy getting possibly his last meal before winter.

Here's one of the Marigold plants we've been enjoying this fall.
And this mum plant is just huge and as you can see full of flowers.

Can't wait to plant flowers at our place next year. Already making plans in my mind of what I want to do but there is a whole lot of things that will need to be done inside so who knows how much I'll actually get done outside.

Guess that's it for now. Till next time............................................