Friends returning, Brother Bob, Oktoberfest

Guess I'm really slacking on posting this blog. Like others that have blogs once you settle in one location for awhile there's not much to write about.

My brother Bob had open heart surgery this week so we anxiously wait for update phone calls. And my dear SIL Diane has been wonderful on calling me and their son Brian has been sending emails out to family and friends. Bob is still in ICU but after a few speed bumps after surgery he is amazing the Dr's on how well he's doing. Hopefully he will be moved from ICU in the next day or so. So Big Brother keep on amazing those Dr's on your recovery but don't push it to far.

Lots of residents arrived this week. Needed to do walk abouts ever few hours just to see who's here. Which never seems to bother Pepper. She too likes to find out if the new arrivals have any new playmates. Donna/Grant Zinnecker that are parked right next to us came in on Tuesday. They had their trailer painted over the summer and is it gorgeous. We were happy to see their dog Wendy is still with them. She's almost 15 years old and she looks and acts like a kid. Pepper seems to sense that Wendy isn't up to her normal standards of ruff housing so is content to just be with her. We also introduced Pepper to Lucy their cat, which is a first for Pepper. Lucy seemed to want to set some ground rules and every time Pepper gets too close to her, Lucy hauls off and whacks her on the end of her nose.

On Thursday Gary/Marilynn Orthober pulled in who are on the other side of us. Lots of hugs and a great catch up time at happy hour. Also that day Mark/Dale Bruss arrived. I found that my walks around the park are back to taking a hour or two by the time I stop and chit chat.

David/Linda Cypcar stopped over on Thursday (busy day). David had a set of steps he made for their 5th wheel that they know longer need so after Larry makes some adjustments we'll be able to use them for our door. Can't wait, much better and safer steps for getting in/out of the trailer. Course we had to do a little payment so we jumped in the car and went over to the Dairy Queen for one of their yummy Blizzards. Linda got me started on those darn things a few years back and now I'm hooked. At least they came out with a mini blizzard which is not quite as bad in calories.

News flash, just got off the phone with brother Bob and he sounds great. All the updates are wonderful but there's nothing like hearing his voice. Great talking to you Bobby

Yesterday afternoon I went up to the clubhouse and helped with the fixings for the Oktoberfest dinner that was last night. It was a perfect evening to sit out on the patio, enjoy a good meal, have a little wine and see everyone.

There were a couple of pictures on FaceBook this week that I want to share.

This says it all
Love this one

Daughter Renee' had to fly to Norway last week for work. I love this real-time flight tracker where I can log in and see where the plane is at and when it arrives. You can even see a picture of the plane so I could see what seat she was sitting at. Pretty cool. Luckily she returned on Friday before all the snow on the East Coast and got back home in Cleveland without problems.

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

Pepper update - have some pictures to share but instead of putting them on here I will upload them on our Webshot site under a Pepper's Album later today. The training is an on going thing but we, I mean she, really picks things up quickly. The hard part is remembering she is a puppy and if there are other dogs around all bets are off.

Another week -

Having a hard time remembering just what we've done this last week. Larry has been watching all the games, well maybe not all of them but enough. Someone asked me this week if I've been watching them and I answered I don't need to, I just listen to Larry and pretty much can guess what's going on. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Donna Zennecker and I are in charge of the ladies luncheon for November so we've been working on that - through emails- since they won't be here until next Tuesday. Last November the men of Retama fixed and served us lunch so we are carrying on the tradition to make this an annual event. David McCarron will be our chef this year and from the sounds of it we ladies are in for a wonderful meal. We've even given them a name M-COR (Male-Caterers of Retama)

We had the trailer washed and waxed on Tuesday. Of course that day it was windy and dusty but it still looks better. We also got the awning opened and secured to the cement blocks. So nice having the area covered from the dew and morning sun.

Had pizza night up at the clubhouse. David/Sue McCarron are in charge of taking the orders and getting them to the local pizza place. Actually we're able to order anything off the menu so that's nice. We got the pizza and we didn't really care for it so next month we'll try something else.

My interpretation of the top 5 changes in your life when a puppy moves in

5) You now have toys and slimy raw hide bones all over the living room
4) You are spending as much time at Pet Smart as you do at Walmart
3) Even tho it's a 4 legged animal it can make you have a guilt trip when you leave
2) When you leave the house you always make sure you have poop bags in your pocket
And the #1 change
That big sloppy kiss you get every morning isn't coming from your husband

But even with these five changes and I'm sure there will be more over time we have to admit Pepper has totally taken over not only our home but our hearts. We go over to the agility course every day and she totally loves that place. Here's a couple of pictures. She's got Larry totally trained to give her a treat every time she completes the course.

This is the course that we have to go to at least twice a day

For those of you that are residents either in or near our park you might want to know that I've arranged for the Health Dept to come to our park on Dec 2 (9am-1pm) to give flu shots. Cost is $15 and they will take Medicare Part B insurance.

I've been watching the weather back up north and we're so glad we left when we did. It pretty much turned cold and rainy within a few days after leaving. Weather here has been perfect these last couple of days but temps are suppose to go back in the 90's with humidity this weekend. So that means the air will need to come back on. The other morning it was in the 50's and everyone here was freezing. Course the day before that it was 97.

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

Arrived at Retama

We arrived safe and sound at Retama on Wednesday. The trip was uneventful which is always a blessing. Only one time of a little tension in the truck when we were going through Austin but we won't go into details. Lets just say it was a quiet ride from Austin to San Antonio.

As mentioned in the last blog I have a picture to share of the RV park in West Memphis. Many of our RV friends make a point of stopping here and unfortunately it was hit hard with the flooding this spring. Here's a picture of the laundry building. All the buildings down by the river are raised
but afraid they needed to be a lot higher on this last flood.


The woman at the desk said the water was above this building. They not only had the flood to deal with but I guess a tornado went through that took a lot of the trees where the office use to be. But as I said they are back up and running.

As much as I hated leaving Michigan it sure felt good driving in the gates here. It's nice to have two locations that both feel like home when you arrive. Not a lot of people here yet but each day one or two pull in so by the end of the month there should be quite a few.

Truck ran good coming down and even better the fuel mileage was the best we've had. Larry goes by MPG, I go by CC H(credit card hit). We filled up in West Memphis (3.67) 84 gallons ($302) and we still have almost a half of tank left. This sure beat the $1000 it cost us on the way home last spring. Granted we had a few more miles of traveling but not that many. Guess the work KW did on it this summer paid off.

Today we ran to Walmart to give our fair share to the economy and while Larry washed the three inches of dirt off the car I started pulling some of the lawn furniture out of the shed. I also worked on the laundry. It's so nice having the larger washer/dryer here, especially the dryer, the one in the trailer takes forever to finish a load.

We had HH last night with the McCarrons and Jim Brunfield. David/Sue have been here all summer (they have a really nice house) so they filled us in on what's been happening. Even tho it was warm we were able to sit out on their patio.

So that's about it. Till next time................................

Pepper update:

Pepper has really taken to this retirement life of going for walks and having happy hours. She's met three new friends, Cookie who is about her size, Trip who is much taller and Trash who is a 122lb lab. I think Trash has fallen in love with Pepper and I also think the feeling is mutual. With HH at McCarrons and their yard is fenced in we were able to let her off the lease. Pepper seemed to be totally fascinated with the size of Trash's tongue and kept sticking her nose on it, maybe to see if it was real. When Trash would try to do monkey business Pepper could scoot under him. Course sometimes that wasn't the safest way to get away cause she'd get hit with that 20lb tail. Will have to get some pictures of her new boyfriend. Trip didn't want much to do with her, I'm thinking she doesn't like having a new girl in the neighborhood and all of Trash's attention was towards Pepper.

Early this morning we took her next door to the dog run before it got to hot. It's a huge area and after 15 minutes of smell checking she started chasing the ball. There is a container there with several balls and she would run after one, take it to the container and bring another one out for Larry to throw. Haven't figure out what that was about but than I'll probably (and hopefully) never understand a puppy thinking.

Who needs expensive exercise machine when you have a puppy

Last week in Michigan

Last week was a full one of getting the sticks and bricks ready for winter and the trailer/truck ready for traveling. Plus we spent time with family. Of course the weather decided to do a complete turn and went from frost, rain, windy to sunny and high 70's . Everyone kept asking why are we leaving when there's such beautiful weather but I knew it could all change over night.

Have a picture I want to share. When Lon/Pat came over this summer they brought us a yellow rose bush. I wasn't sure if it was going to make it but this week the bush is full of buds and one opened up. Sure is pretty, Sorry we won't be able to see the rest but the neighbors will enjoy it.
Monday I met my SIL Gail Moore for lunch and we were able to catch up a little on our families and lives. Nice lunch and we both decided we need to do this more often next summer.

Tuesday made a quick trip up to St Johns to see our son Alan.

Wednesday night we were able to go watch Darrius's game. He didn't play much that night but I guess the game yesterday was exciting. He made three touch downs. Good job Darrius.

Thursday night we had dinner with my siblings (Bob/Diane, Nadene/Mike, Larry/Stint) at the Log Jam. Nice evening and we even ran into some old friends there that we haven't seen in years. Larry finished winterizing the house that day while I emptied the refrig and packed up the things we wanted to take back to the trailer.

Friday we had some errands to do than and I cooked up some chicken and pork for the travel days. Our kids Brandi/Darrel, Anissa/Darrius came over for dinner. Soon it was time for them to leave, always so hard to give those last hugs. But we promised Anissa we would be back to see her on Senior Prom the 5th of May.

Saturday morning arrived. Doesn't seem like we've been sitting at the farm for five months. The time went so quickly. But it was time to hitch up and pull out. More last good-byes and we pulled out at 8:30.

Traveling was good on Sat. Seems like there was a lot of construction especially on I70 west of Indy, lots of one lane sections. And of course there's always construction around Indy. Arrived at the Walmart in Terre Haute around 3:00.

Sunday finds us currently traveling down I57 (will post this later tonight). Still have another 212 miles to go to ge to West Memphis for the night. Long travel day of almost 400 miles. But easy drive as there isn't any major cities and most of it is open farm land and trees. Construction still around but not as bad.

Have a couple more pictures to share. My brother got his new combine last week and was getting ready to harvest beans. Sure is a pretty thing.

Darrius would love punching these buttons, but don't think Uncle would be thrilled

Pepper update for those who care. Traveling seems to agree with her. Loves sitting on my lap looking out the window but most of the time she plays with her toys or lays on her bed between us. She couldn't quite figure out the trailer with the slides in last night. I opened the blinds in the trailer so she could people watch Walmart shoppers. She's just so nosy and want to see everything. We've lucked out and she doesn't seem to be a barker when she sees something. We did buy a bark collar and put that on her this week and shut her in the trailer. It took about three zaps and that was the end of her barking.

So that's it for now. The plans are we should be in Retama on Wednesday. Now that we're on the road I'm anxious to get there.

Till next time..............from Texas...............

Wind-Rain-Frost, Departure Date & Pepper

Well it looks like departure time will be next weekend. This week will be busy getting the house in town buttoned up for the winter, the trailer and vehicles ready for traveling, seeing family and all the other things that go along with leaving. The plan is to go straight to Texas but of course that can change.

So what have we've been doing for the pass week. Basically trying to stay dry and warm. What a miserable week weather wise.

Tuesday we met up with Darrius and Brandi a half hour before his flag football practice so he could meet Pepper. They hit it off right away.
Wednesday was actually Darrius first game and it ended in a tie. There's one thing about our little man and that's he very intense and totally focus when he's playing any sport. Even to the point where he pointed out to the referee that the ball was position on the wrong side of the scrimmage markers.

Of course I can't have a picture of our grandson without showing our grand daughter. Here's Anissa all dressed up for Home Coming night at her school.
Thursday Larry took the truck out for a test run and every thing was working good. He even said the fuel mileage was running between 14-15. Too bad it didn't do that when we're hauling the train behind it. Seems like we're always driving in a head wind too.

That night we went over to Dave/Dawn/Syndey's for dinner along with Dave's mom Yvonne. Afraid we haven't spent much time with them this summer since we weren't parked in their back yard. Pepper got to meet Norton (Sydney's dog) and Molly (Yvonne's dog). Interesting watching a 80 lb dog try to keep up with a 12 lb puppy that makes a U turn under his belly. But the best part was watching Pepper try to get to know Jackson (the cat). Jackson wanted nothing to do with that 12 lb energizer and even giving out the hisses and a paw slap wasn't detouring Pepper.

Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed up. Crap!!! Haven't had a cold in years and don't have the time for one now. Had to take Pepper over for her Beauty Salon appointment to get a bath, nails trimmed, ears cleaned and of course a little trim where needed. Seems our little girl loves being pampered and took it all in like the little queen she thinks she is. But she did look and smell much better and was glad to hear that the groomer said she looked to be a very healthy and clean puppy.
Saturday I was feeling better but Larry had a little tickle in his throat. But we had made plans with Larry (DB) and Stint (SIL) to go to the Wharton Center in East Lansing to see the Jersey Boys. OMG if any of you get a chance to see this show it is unbelievable. I've already checked their tour schedule hoping they would be in the RGV this winter but they aren't. I would go and see them again if they would have been.

Today we've just been hanging around the trailer. I was feeling much better and Larry was feeling much worse so he pretty much watched sports and I did laundry and cleaning.

Oh one other thing I accomplished this week was scanning old family pictures that my parents had. Did folders of each sibling (with their family), than one for just pictures of my parents and one for both the grandparents sides. I can't remember how many for sure but I think there was over 300 pictures. Downloaded to disc and will give each sibling one. Now I need to do Larry's side but since there are several tubs of pictures I think I'll wait until next summer so I don't have to haul them south with us.

So that's about it for now. They say we have one more night of frost than suppose to warm up this week. Lets hope so, these 50 degree highs is for the birds. Actually the birds are smarter as they've already headed south. Till next time........................................