Furniture Pictures

Our first full week home. We had one day that it was actually nice outside, which means it got out of the 50's.  Funny how that works, can't wait to see temps in the 60's and just a few weeks ago if it got down to the low 70s we were cold.

So Tuesday the furniture was delivered and we could move the lawn chairs out to the garage. I still need to find some end tables and lamps but that will come.

                                                                 Here's Larry's 50" TV

                                                                       My accent chairs

 This is Larry and Peppers chair

                                                                         And the Love Seat

I need to find wall items and we actually have some ideas but we need to get back down to Mexico for those.

Wednesday the Direct TV guy came. We decided to change the plan from the RV Mobile to House one since Larry wanted to get the HD box. We have two satellite dish's here, one on the roof which is a Direct one but of course it's not the right one and than a Dish one that's in the back yard. So we now have three  until Larry takes them down.
 
Thursday we had a guy come and roll the lawn. It was pretty rough and luckily it rained a little the night before. We may have to have him come back again, it feels better to walk on it but Larry will know more the next time he mows.

Friday we went into a couple of lumber places to get an idea on a  fence for the back yard. The good thing is we have a nice size back yard, the bad thing is we have a nice size back yard for the cost of a fence.  That may have to wait until next year. If it wasn't for Pepper I wouldn't fence it but it would be nice to just let her out without being on a chain. We got some fertilizer for the lawn and Larry put that on in the afternoon. Probably regret that move when we have to start mowing twice a week. 

Speaking of Pepper she seems to have settled right in to her summer home. Didn't have any problem the first time we left her, peeked in the window and she was just laying on the bed. She's gotten use to the sound of our car so now after we pull in she's standing in the window looking at us. She has really taken to our nieces and nephews (I suppose I should mention these are great nieces/nephews). Anyway I was a little concerned since she has never been around kids before other than the first week we got her last fall. But she just loves little people and gets so excited when they come over.

                                     But she spends a lot of time just looking out this window, day or night
                       

Today which is Saturday is a stay home and stay warm day. The high right now is 43 degrees and they say we've hit the high mark, tonight down in the 20's. Next week is suppose to be in the 70's, sure hope so, we are so tired of putting every long sleeve shirt on we own to go for a walk.

That's it for this week. Till next time........................................

We've landed in Michigan

I got a call from my friend Donna today asking what's happening with us. They've been watching for a updated blog. It's been a world win since we got back but let me fill you in first on the trip home.

As I posted on Tuesday our first day we traveled over 600 miles. Loved the toll road around Austin, totally took away that stressful area. We used "By Mail" option so all you have to do is keep on driving and a camera takes a picture of your license plate with a bill to come in the mail.

Wednesday we left Mt Vernon TX shortly after 6:30am. The weather was good and other than a traffic tie up around Little Rock from a accident we moved right along. 710 miles later we stopped for the night just east of Effingham IL.

Thursday, we got a late start and wasn't on the road until almost 7:30 but we also new we had a short under 400 mile day. About the time we drove into Michigan it started raining. Luckily it quit long enough for us to unhook the car at the Meijers parking lot and arrived at our home about 2:00.

All in all the trip was the easiest we ever had. Our only problem was Pepper. She had a hard time with staying in Motels, just too many sounds during the nights and she thought she had to let us know every time she head something. I finally turned the fan on and left the TV on all night for white noise.

So to fill you in on what we've been doing since we arrived. First thing we've been freezing. We've seen frost just about every morning and the highs have been only in the 50's. Everyone keeps telling us how warm it's been up until now. Ya right, like that makes us feel any warmer.

Friday we unloaded and unpacked the truck and car and Larry got the yard mowed. Of course I needed to get to the grocery store since there was nothing in the house. As I was putting the groceries away I started a new list for things I'd already forgotten. Bob and Diane stopped as they were leaving to go up to their place at Houghton Lake. That night we were able to see Brandi, Anissa and Darrius.

Saturday morning we put on every piece of warm clothing we had which wasn't enough and headed for Darrius's soccer game. Neither of us have been that cold in a long long time. When we left there Larry asked if I wanted to run down to this furniture store since we were close to it. Well a hour later we left with a delivery schedule on Tuesday for a love seat, lazy boy and two barrel chairs. Not sure how that happened but I'm excited about having it come tomorrow. A picture will come next week.

Shortly after we got home I went in to Brandi's place and we along with Anissa went out to lunch. Than we went to David's Bridal Shop for a final fitting of the wedding dress. It's a beautiful gown and of course she's going to be a gorgeous bride.

Sunday morning we wanted to run into Menard's for a couple of things but first I wanted to go into Walmart to pick up a large measuring cup and potato peeler. While I was looking at those Larry said he wanted to just look at the TV's there. Big mistake, 45 minutes later they were loading a 50" Plasma and a TV Stand in the back of our car. Oh and we never made it to Menard's. Around noon Larry/Stint stopped with two of their grandkids Ava and Adrienne. That afternoon we ran over to David/Dawn and Sydney"s place to see them (along with Davids mom Yvonne).

That night Nadene and Mike stopped over and brought us two lawn chairs and table that she's had stored for several years. This lawn furniture is kind of special as our parents use to have a cabin when we were young and this was from there.

OK so that brings you  up to today. Finally got to Menard's this morning after I went to the laundry-mat. Wanted to talk with a Direct TV person so went down to Best Buy but the rep doesn't come in until noon or 1PM. Must be nice to have a job like that. Anyway I ended up calling Direct and getting things changed. This afternoon Larry sprayed the yard for weeds and I pulled weeds from the flower beds. It was still cold but the sun was out and if you could stay out of the wind it was "almost" pleasant.

That fills you in on the last week. It's good to be home and see everyone even with the frosty mornings. At least we know our furnace works good. Tomorrow the furniture comes and Wednesday the  Direct TV comes. I still need to get some lamps and end tables but want to wait until after the furniture is here. As I said I'll get some pictures posted next time. And I did my normal thing and purchased the colors that are totally different than I had planned.

Till next time.................................

Travel Day 1

We pulled out of Retama shortly after 7:30am. Cloudy and a little cooler this morning with winds out of the north. Figures, we've had southerly winds for a month and today it picks to change. There sure are a lot more last minute things to do because of leaving the trailer parked. The biggest thing is making sure no food and especially crumbs are left. Sure don't want creepy crawlies moving in for the summer.

Just passed the Border Check point. Pepper saw their dogs and wanted to get out and play so bad. But these are not play puppies.

Around 10:30 we pulled on to US37. Traffic on 281 was good and there wasn't much construction. We stopped at the first Rest Area to give Pepper (& us) a potty break.

Major traffic jam after we got on I30 outside of Dallas. Course it was 5PM and I have a feeling it was just their normal traffic pattern.

Poor Pepper is beside herself on what's going on. But she did get to play for awhile last night with her favorite pal Foster. These two are so much alike in personality and behavor you would think they were from the same litter. Had to snap one last picture of them together.


The day ended after 605 miles in Mt Vernon and we are STILL in Texas. Till next time...

Window of opportunity weather wise

The plan was to leave Mission on the 23rd of this month. I have this wonderful weather travel site - that I start watching when it's time to hit the road. Normally after some majors storms like this weekend there is a stretch of decent weather and after looking at the site starting this Tuesday it looked good. So the plan is now to leave Tuesday (17th).

As I've said we've been working on getting things done for closing up the trailer and having the car/truck ready for travel. Most of the things that were left were last minute "to dos". Yesterday we took the truck out and filled it up. $3.99.9 good thing we only needed 120 gallons. I worked most of the day packing the items in a tub that we want up north. Today first thing we took the brackets down from the awning and got it rolled back up than went to Walmart and got some of those vacuum storage bags. I started laundry early, got the freezer defrosted, sorted food items to give to a lady that's coming tomorrow and took Pepper to the puppy park one last time to see what friends that are still here. As it turns out all but one will be leaving this week too. It was almost like they all knew it was their last day together, none of them wanted to leave and wouldn't come when called.

After lunch we started putting lawn furniture, grill etc in the shed. Larry took the steps apart and we got those in and I have all the tubs ready to go in the back of the car.

Tomorrow early we need to go to the water dept and put everything on vacation, than to the post office to mail in a oil sample from the big truck that Larry does every year when he has the oil changed. Oh and a stop at the bank to get some cash. We made plans last week to meet Dave and Linda Monday afternoon for one last Blizzard and when we get back we'll put the tubs in the car, Larry will take care of most of the hoses, unhook the cable and back the car up and hook the truck to it. So come Tuesday morning it won't take long to finish things up and take off. All of this would have been a lot easier to do if it wasn't in the 90's.

We should be home by Friday sometime. I haven't told Larry what the weather report is for next weekend back home. Lets just say we'll probably be out of our shorts and t-shirts for awhile. I'll probably have to make a trip to Meijers for some flannel sheets and a heavy blanket as the bed up there has cotton and a thin blanket.

I only have two pictures to share and both are of Pepper. All this commotion of getting things ready has made her pretty nervous and she's been staying pretty close to us. One time when I was packing items I turned around and she had all her toys in the middle of the room.

This is the look she's been giving us for the pass week.

And yesterday she went with us to fill the truck up and had to take this picture.

Guess that's it for this week. Till next time....................... from Michigan

Flat Darrius has his own blog

I decided to give Flat Darrius his own blog. This way Brandi (daughter) and Darrius (gr-son) will be able to follow what Flat Darrius is up too. Plus when it's time to complete the assignment and hand it in she can print it.

So for those who want to follow along the link to this blog is on the right hand side under "contributors". Just click the Flat Darrius and than go into that site.

Friends leaving & meet Flat Darrius

Monday, not a lot going on. Pat and Jim left early that morning for WI. We didn't get a chance to say goodbye to them so have to do it now - bye - see you this fall.

We were a little concerned with Pat/Jim and several other residents here who were traveling around Dallas the day of the tornado's. Luckily everyone was either just ahead or behind the storms. This is about the biggest concern for RV'ers (and anyone traveling) this time of year when most of us have to go through tornado alley. We always keep the weather station on the CB on and we've only had a couple of tense times. But boy do you get nervous when a tornado warning comes on and gives you the county - only we don't no what county we're in.

Tuesday - we went to the water dept in Mission to fill out our vacation form. Our garbage collection is included on this monthly bill so when we fill out the form they take off that and the sewer charges. But when I walked up to the building it was lined out the door so maybe another trip there next week. We stopped at this place where we purchased all the handles for the kitchen cabinets and picked up four more smaller ones. Than a stop at HEB (Kroger up north) for some shrimp for the Paella dish that night.

Wednesday Larry took the truck over to the Kenworth dealer for it's annual physical, oil change, lube and all the other check ups they do. Would you believe this is probably the first time something wasn't found that needed to be replaced so we only had to pay what we actually went in for.

One of our neighbors that left earlier gave me a name and number of a woman from their church who would be happy to come and get any food items we needed to get rid of before we left. So I figured if I had things there would be others here in the park that might have items. So I put a post on our Retama Facebook page that if anyone wanted to drop things off I'd be sure to get them to this woman. I didn't think I'd get too much with so many people already gone but I sure was wrong. I ended up calling the folks and asking them to come earlier than I thought as I'd run out of room in my refrigerator and the can goods where piling up. Here's a picture of some of the items after just a week of putting the post out.
Thursday we went over to Larry and LaVila's and had lunch at this place that I can't remember the name of. They have this very high tech ordering device to get the orders back to the cook. A long wire strung from the counter over your head to the kitchen and they hook your order on it with a clothes pin and shoot it across. Pretty cool ha. Everything runs smoothly unless there's a tall man standing in the way and he gets whacked in the head with it. We had a nice lunch and always enjoy spending time with the other L&L couple.

Friday Larry and Gary went over to the gun range and played cowboys. I needed to get things for Easter Dinner at the Cypcars so make a trip up to Walmart. I wanted Larry to go but he didn't want to so since I didn't have anything else to do I wandered around the store. Well you know that wandering around a store you always find good sales, so I figure it's Larry's fault that I found these things since he wouldn't go with me. But I do have a really neat purse now.

People are still pulling out. Our friends Dick and Helen left on Friday heading back to their home near Denver CO. Also Lon and Pat left on Thursday heading towards Michigan by way of a family visit in OK. They don't live to far from us so we've already made a lunch date in June.

Still working on getting things ready to leave. We got the silver installation all cut and in the larger windows. With the 90 degree temp's this has really helped keep the house cooler. I have the cupboards all sorted out and wiped down. Want to make sure there isn't any crumbs around to invite critters. Larry pretty much has any tools etc in the truck that he wants back in Michigan plus most of the tubs I have are strapped down on the top bunk in the truck. That doesn't leave much left for us to do. Guess we'll watch the weather up there and see how things go with that. But as long as they still have frost at night we'll stay put.

Our grandson Darrius's 2nd grade class was given a assignment to make a cut out of themselves and send it to someone who lives in a different area. You've probably head of Flat Stanley and this is what he's doing, only ours in named Flat Darrius. Well Flat Darrius arrived Friday and will be staying with us until we return him to Darrius when we get back to Michigan. We're suppose to take pictures and document what he's seen and done. So at the end of each blog I will do a little up date of what Flat Darrius did that week.

Here's F.D. being released from his traveling folder

Of course he had to meet his grandparents

But I don't think Pepper's to thrilled on the new member

Guess that's it for this week. Hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow. Till next time......