My Last Blog in 2010

What, 2010 gone already? Unbelievable!!! However, when I stop and think of everything we accomplished this year, that’s also unbelievable! What a year!

At this time last year, we were still in South Texas and didn’t have even a clue that in less than 3 month’s we would own a HOUSE! A house that fits us perfectly. 15 years of full timing in an RV came to an end. Now we’re part-timers.

It was a joyous 15 years and neither of us would trade it for anything in the world. The fun and experiences we had are beyond explanation. Memories and friends we met during our travels are outstanding and unforgettable. For 10 years, we volunteered our services at Custer State Park in South Dakota in the Summers....we had a great job and kept going back year after year.   Winters we went anywhere our hearts led us. What a wonderful experience!

About this time last year, we had an experience that was like none we have ever had before. It was when God placed Rollie and Gina in our lives. It was definitely a meeting made in Heaven that brought us together with this fine young, Christian couple.  Our admiration for them is beyond words.  We have a special bonding with them that is like none other and the enjoyment of meeting up with them was definitely the highlight of the year!!  It was during this time that we unexpectedly lost our oldest son Mikel.  I don't know if we could have made it through losing a second son without them. They took over and cared for us at a time when we needed them most and we are truly Blessed.  We know there are Angels walking with us.

Before we departed North Ranch, Rollie and Gina decided they would come to our place in the Black Hills and help us finish off some living quarters in part of the pole barn we built during the summer of 2008. They made a quick run home to their place in Louisiana and then headed up our way. The rest of the summer is a blur.

We all worked extremely hard day in and day out on what Gina has named “The Cabin” in SD. We got so much done it was unbelievable, way more than I expected. First thing I knew it was all framed, electrical in, plumbing done, dry wall done, painting done, fixtures including bathroom are in. What an accomplishment!! Our good friends Sherri and Rocky drove many miles out of their way to come up and do the plumbing for us….God Bless you guy’s!

During the summer, Ms Pat and I decided we would put our Teton 5TH wheel and Volvo semi tow truck up for sale. I put an ad on “Craig’s List” and 2 weeks later it was SOLD!! Pat and I suddenly found ourselves HOMELESS! We desperately moved everything into our “cabin” and barn. It had no kitchen or floor covering or furniture as of yet, but we were able to improvise and sleep there.

We had decided that we wanted to try a Motorhome before we completely gave up RV’ing. The search began, we loaded up and headed south after looking locally without success for the Motorhome of our DREAMs. Suddenly after a couple weeks of searching, our "Dream Motorhome" appeared right out of nowhere. Did I mention there are Angels walking with us? We knew this was the one!  In about a week, we pulled back onto our place in the Black Hills with our NEW HOME!

So it was a BUSY YEAR to say the least. I didn’t expect to buy a "sticks & bricks" house but it happened. I didn't plan on building the "Cabin" in the barn but it happened.  I didn’t plan on selling the Teton 5TH wheel and Volvo so fast but it happened. I didn’t plan on buying a Motorhome but it happened. I didn’t plan on selling our place at Retama in South Texas so fast but it happened.  It's hard to believe all those things happened in less than a year.

When I was in a store the other day with Ms Pat, I saw this framed plaque. I couldn’t leave without it. What GREAT advice!! So this is my advice to everyone. "Saddle up and Follow Your Dreams!!!!!"

We certainly followed and found ours!! I continue to Thank our Lord and Father for all he does for us. My 3 favorite word’s: Praise the Lord!!

May you all have a Happy and Prosperous NEW YEAR!!

It was a GREAT YEAR!!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas day in our new house here in North Ranch near Congress, AZ. It started out nice and brisk at 39* but not a cloud in the sky. It quickly warmed up to the high 60’s.

Ms Megabyte2 was excited about our First Christmas in HER new Home…. Here she poses for our Christmas Picture of the year.

She especially likes to knock the cute little paper ornaments off onto the floor. Then she gets down and plays with them. She has never had so much room to roam and is having the time of her life.

These are the lights I was telling you about that our friends Greg and Bonnie gave us. The ones in the tree are little lights in shotgun shells and those over the window are Harley Davidson emblems. They really look neat, don’t they and you can see Dale’s little Christmas tree shining and sparkling brightly inside the porch!

It was a quiet, laid back Christmas Day with just the 3 of us but Ms Pat did cook us a WONDERFUL dinner with Turkey, Ham, Giblet Gravy, Cauliflower Casserole and a Fruit Salad. The house smelled "Oh, so GOOD" all morning. WOW, was it ever tasty! Oh, yes, we even had homemade Cranberry Sauce. Now it doesn’t get any better than that, plus we have “leftovers” for about a week. I love leftovers!!  We had many telephone calls from kids and friends afar, and that, with a little Football on TV, topped off a fantastic Christmas day.


Even Ms Mega2 was ready for bed.  It wasn’t long until we were all sound asleep and another CHRISTMAS was history. Soon it will be 2011, as the year end is mighty near. Wednesday will be my last Blog for 2010. It’s been an exciting year but it seems it went by awful fast!!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and we hope you likewise had an outstanding Christmas wherever you are. Travel Safe!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Here comes the FLOODING!!

Just as sure as we know California will have FIRES every year, we know they will have the RAINS and FLOODING. It's happening in Northwestern Arizona, too.  Houses are dropping off cliffs into the raging flood waters! WOW, I feel for those poor people.

We aren’t getting anything like that here but it has been raining a little. A welcome sight to this part of the desert, as it is very dry this year. So far it is sucking up every drop of moisture we get.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Many thanks for all the comments and congratulations on the new truck. Ms Pat and I are having a ball getting acquainted with it and learning where everything is and what it does.  They sure don’t build these new vehicles for us old Cowboys. Everything has a memory and has to be programmed. It’s neat, if you can figure it out!!

One real neat feature is that it has BLUETOOTH and when Ms Pat’s phone rings, it comes in over the Bose sound system. It almost scared me to death the first time it rang but the hands free conversing is unbelievable and a great safety feature.

This will be my last Blog before Christmas, so this will be my last chance to wish all of you a very, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Ms Megabyte2 has her stocking hung and is wishing you all a special "Meow'ry" Christmas from her. :-)

We have more Christmas decorations up this year than we have had since we retired and sold our S&B house in Tallahassee, FL.

Again, in tradition, here is our Christmas Tree. My Mom made this tree many, many tears ago and Ms Pat adored it so much that Mom said she could have it when she was gone. Mom left us a few years ago and we have displayed her beautiful Christmas tree and other special ornaments every year. Here it is Mom.....in YOUR HONOR.  We miss you!!!

Mom had lots of Christmas decorations and she loved these little "Caroling Mice" ornaments. :-)

Even our Patio Porch Table has some special decorations for the season..

This special Christmas Tree sets off our Patio at night. It is special because our special and close friend Dale Bruss gave it to us. I love it and it reminds me of Dale every time I look at it. It has a motor in the base that drives a revolving light that changes colors on the tree. It’s really pretty! 

We also have a few decorative lights hanging in the tree out front and around the window on the front of the house.  The ones in the tree are "shotgun" shells and the ones around the window are "Harley" lights.  Sorry I don't have any pictures of the lights but they are compliments of our special friends Greg and Bonnie.   Thanks guys!

So that’s about it from here in Arizona where we are enjoying this First Christmas in our new House. We hope that you too are enjoying whatever you're doing wherever you are as we honor Christ our Lord on his Birthday and continue to give thanks to Him for what He provides us.

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!

ONE MORE TIME:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Mike and Pat
This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

The SURPRISE!!

We went to Prescott last Tuesday and guess what is right across the street from Walmart?   Yep, of all things....a big Chevrolet Dealership....Lamb Chevrolet.  Ms Pat and I were thinking and talking about a new TOAD. For those of you that aren’t RV’ers, that’s a vehicle you TOW behind your RV. The Honda was fine and we loved it, so we weren’t in any hurry. I had been looking online at the different “big three”…Chevy, Ford and Dodge pickups. I was kinda leaning towards the Chevy’s. 

As we pulled into Walmart, we drove right by a whole line of SILVERADO trucks. “Oh MY, those are pretty,” I told Ms Pat. I thought I’d look at them while she grocery shopped. She said “Wow, they are pretty, lets look at them”.  OK.  A quick look, then groceries and we’re outta here. I was ready to get home. She had been dragging me all over kingdom come shopping, which I don’t do very good anyhow.  “A quick look, mind you”!

Well, we looked at truck after truck, not seeing exactly what we liked and I was ready to head for home. We happened to get a neat Salesman.....not some young, “know-it-all, whipper-snapper” but a nice mature guy. He was very helpful, knowledgeable and not pushy at all. He was explaining all the benefits and incentives they had going on at GM especially at year end. Ms Pat was still out looking at trucks, when I heard her holler “Honey, come here”. I told the salesman “Bill” I’d be right back.  "That’s OK", he said, "Take your time and if you have any questions let me know".  He stayed inside.

I walked way over to where Ms Pat was and suddenly my eyes opened WIDE. WOW!  There was most the beautiful truck in the whole world!  We started looking it over and, of course, we had to look at the price and options sticker. It had everything we wanted and more! It was locked and I was thinking “Hmmm....should I go get the key and open it up?  Naw…..I guess I won’t do that.  We’re just looking today."  Suddenly while we were standing there looking at it and no one else was around, IT STARTED UP!!!!  It was suddenly running!!! Holy Cow!!!  What the HECK? Then out of nowhere, Bill showed up with the remote key in his hand. He was smiling and holding up the keys when he asked, “Wanna’ drive it”?  I was about to say, "No, not today", when Ms Pat said “SURE”.

So we drove it about 10 miles out east on the highway and stopped in a big empty parking lot. We got out, opened the hood and all the doors and looked it all over again closely in private. Gee, it was a nice truck! Ms Pat drove it back to the dealership. Now the dealin' started. (I kinda enjoy this part! :-) ) It seems Bill was the BOSS. He didn’t have to check with anybody else about anything. That was SUPER! We negotiated back and forth for quite a while when Bill asked me “What are you going to do with your Honda?”  "I’m going to sell it", I told him. He liked the car, and those Honda’s do have real “sales appeal”. (I bought it from the “CHEVY” dealer in Rapid City.) He asked me why I didn’t trade it in.  OK, shoot me a DEAL? I had already booked it, so I knew the High, Low and Trade-in. 

Anyhow, to make a long, story short, he gave us as much as I would have asked for it and I didn’t have to clean it up or find a buyer myself.

We ended up making a deal and I feel we got one heck of a price. The cash price was better than anything I could find online and to take the Honda as trade-in would save me a lot of time and trouble.

Problem solved, I finally had something I could tow the 2 cargo trailers with, it is towable behind the Motorhome and can carry a 4X4 or the Harley. We do miss our truck (Volvo). We couldn’t haul much of anything without it….couldn’t even get a big screen TV in the Honda. I wanted to buy a ladder at Home Depot the other day and couldn’t haul it home.  Yep, problem solved!! Praise the Lord!!

Notice the painted grill and bumper.  My son Pat will love that, he enjoys the NO CHROME” custom look and has his Motorcycle totally blacked out like that. I sent him a picture and he said “NICE TRUCK”!

Here are a few more pictures and I’m afraid I’ll be showing you more as time goes on. :-)


It fills up our carport a little more than the Honda!

What a NEAT TOY Santa Claus left us.

I think I’ll just go HAUL SOMETHING!!;-)  but first, off to Church as we continue to thank the Lord for all he provides us.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Winter??? What Winter???

The weather here in Arizona has been out of this world!! It's setting records for the warmest December in history. I, for one, am really enjoying it and appreciate it very much. It's 45 deg when we get up, usually not a cloud in the sky and it gets to the mid 70's during the day. Believe me, I spent enough time in the "Cold Country" in my life that I'm very thankful for weather such as this.

After 40+ years in Nebraska, I've scooped my share of snow and weathered many a blizzard. Oh, how well I remember many winter nights that it got down to -20 deg below 0. I remember this happening every night for about 2 weeks in a row and it would only warm up to about 0 during the day time.  Brrrrrrrrr, makes me shiver to even think about it.   We have been here almost 2 weeks and it's been perfect every day. No humidity, no wind, cool mornings and warm afternoon's.  I love it!

Slowly but surely we are getting things done around the place here. Remember this picture of how our back yard looked when we got here?

Several of the trees had split at the trunk and needed to be cut down. Some branches were hanging out over the neighbors property, so we had to address the problem. See below:

There we go.  Now it looks a lot better, don't you think?  See more of

Ms Gina's rock work around the tree's?

Thank all of you for your congratulations of the quick sale of our property at Retama Village in Mission, TX. The final step, wiring of the funds is scheduled to happen TODAY. So keep your fingers crossed and yes, as Margie and Roger said, what a great Christmas present! 

Yesterday, we spent all day in Prescott.  Prescott is a neat town and much easier to get around in than Phoenix. They have almost every kind of shopping you need up there and it's all in one area east of town. We had an exciting day looking for the things Ms Pat wanted.  The crowds weren't too bad at first, but picked up as the day went on. Shopping still is NOT my thing, even if it is for things we need.  Boy, we need a LOT!!  It just wears me out! It was way after Happy Hour when we got home and I think Ms Megabyte2 thought we had abandoned her for sure. She was happy to see us, but not NEAR as happy as I was to see HER!!

We are happy to see 3 more FOLLOWER'S:
Fiver Adventures
Bob and Vicky
Jan and Len

Welcome aboard Folks.  We sure are glad to have you.  That's brings our count to 148 followers.  Maybe we'll hit 200 yet!!  Click on these folks picture and check out their BLOGS.

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you will come back SUNDAY. I might have something SPECIAL to show you then!!!

Remember to tell your kids and family you love them.  They may not be around forever.

God Bless!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

That was FAST...Retama is SOLD!!

Yep, our place at Retama Village in Mission, TX is sold. At least, we have a check in our hand for “good faith” money and the sales contract has been signed and faxed. We are just waiting for the paperwork to be completed.

Many thanks to our friends Mark and Dale Bruss for showing it for us. They must have done a SUPER job.  We didn’t even have the "For Sale" sign up a month. We were only there for a month this year and we showed it 2 or 3 times. Mark and Dale showed it at least twice after we headed West and it sold a week after we were gone.

So Retama, like our Teton 5Th Wheel and Volvo Truck, is HISTORY!! Our world is a changing world and it's been a whirlwind the last year. This doesn't mean we won’t be back to Retama. We have many good friends there that we think the world of and we know lots of folks there that we can rent a spot from for a week, a month or for the winter. It really is a beautiful RV Resort and if your RV’n around seeing the county, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Here's a link to the Rental website:  Retama Rentals

Now we only have 2 places.....Custer, SD and Congress, AZ.   Like I said, we are downsizing. We enjoy these two places so much, we don’t need anymore to worry about and we continue to thank the Lord for what he has provided us.

Have you been to town lately?????  Well, CHRISTMAS is a COMING!! Wow, the stores are PACKED!! I don’t care if I ever go back but Ms Pat informs me that we are going again Tuesday.  Ugh!!  This time we’ll try Prescott but I have a feeling it's busy too!

Time to get in the "SPIRIT".  Christmas stuff is going up all over our house and Jingle Bells is playing on the stereo! So it's time for us to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

God Bless you all.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

O’Boy.....Are we "BUSY", but Lovin’ it !!

It seems like we are always coming or going. We are either getting our place ready to live in or getting it ready to not live in.   Either way, it's quite a job but one that is a “way of life” for us and we love it.

We are getting settled in our new place at North Ranch near Wickenburg, AZ. This place is really comfortable and Pat and I are so glad we found it. We are here a month or so early this Winter and couldn’t wait to get here. We have been coming here every Winter for so many years I can’t even remember.  It started way back in 1997 or 98. Guess you can tell we LIKE IT!

This is ONE of the reasons we love it here so much. It's beautiful!! We are out in the desert away from the hustle and bustle and have miles and miles of beautiful desert country right at our fingertips to roam.

This picture was taken just 9 months ago when Rollie and Gina came to visit. We are on our lot and all the “toy’s” are out. Little did we know at that time, that in just 2 weeks we would be moved into a HOUSE……. WOW!!  What a busy Winter that was!

I did manage to get the ATV’s out and running recently.  Yesterday afternoon we took a break and ventured out in the desert for a short ride, back just in time for ???????  You guessed it ! HAPPY HOUR!! :-)

Monday morning we had all our blood work done and will find out the results next Monday. Tomorrow we are headed for the BIG city and that’s an all day affair. I need to check with my Dr. in Scottsdale and make our usual run to Sam’s and Costco.

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by…..and please come on back Sunday.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

We’re HOME!!!

What a great trip we had from South Texas! Weather was just  perfect and the rig couldn’t have run better.

After a great afternoon of visiting with the Grandsons, Michael and Stephen, in Tucson Wednesday afternoon and evening, we were up early Thursday and continuing on our way home to North Ranch. Ms Pat drove all the way and I just sat in the passenger seat and enjoyed the ride.  Hey, I’m lovin' this motorhomin' more all the time!

We pulled into North Ranch shortly after lunch time and stopped right in front of our good friends Paul and Nancy’s house and interrupted their lunch.  After long hugs, we unhooked our Toad and proceeded on down to our house.  WOW!!!  It was so easy to put the Motorhome in it's spot!  Unbelievable and it fits nicely, don’t you think?

The place looked wonderful. Wow, how the trees and shrubs had grown on our lot….AMAZING!!

A couple of days later and some “hard work”, Ms Pat and I had the trees in the front under control and looking better.

Whew!!!  Looks a whole lot better now, right? I had forgotten all the many chores that went along with home ownership. Now, for the BACK YARD!!  Do you see those orange trees between the house and the trailer?  They are full of oranges.  We have already tested the Navel Oranges and they are DELICIOUS!

High winds from a storm during the summer really did a number on our Mesquite tree’s in the back yard. There are many broken trunks and will really need some cutting up. We may lose most of them entirely. This will be our next project! Ah Ha!!  Now I remember.  Home ownership is just like RV’n.... there is always a “PROJECT” or two....never an idle moment!

Every where we look there are so many reminders of Rollie and Gina. Look at these beautiful house numbers that they found for us. I just LOVE them and Gina hand painted those numbers herself! Two greater kids have never set foot on this earth. We just praise the Lord so much for bringing them into our life. What a lasting impression they have made. 

After a couple of long, hard days getting moved from the Motorhome back into the house and getting our new “Dish” TV set up, it sure was nice last night to take a nice, LONG HOT shower in a “real” shower and settle back for some good ole' college FOOTBALL!!

We stayed up way past our bed time.....only to watch both Florida State and the University of Nebraska get beat!!  SHUCKS!!!  But gosh it was a great season!! Both schools improved their records immensely.

That’s about it from down here at "The Ranch"…….45 deg mornings, 75 deg days, clear skies, beautiful mountain scenery all around us and NO humidity. Thank you God for our wonderful life!

Monday morning all the medical “stuff” starts as we head in early to the lab for blood work. That means we have to FAST....NO COFFEE!!  UGH!!!  That’s the worst part....me without my morning coffee....not a pretty picture!!!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

We are off to Church and hope you all can do the same.  God Bless!
Thanks for dropping in…

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

I can’t believe it’s WEDNESDAY already!!

Boy, that was fast! The last 2 days flew by and we woke up this morning in NEW MEXICO! As of yesterday, we are no longer Texans for a while.

We departed Retama Village in Mission, TX, Monday morning about 8am and drove 400 miles to our favorite roadside park about 40 miles West of Del Rio, TX right along Hwy 90. It was a great trip and everything went smooth as silk. We thank the Lord for being our “Co-Pilot”!

We love this spot!  It’s back off the road and is very private and quiet. Plus, it’s beautiful!

That bridge is Hwy 90 over the Pecos River where it dumps into the Rio Grande. We stopped here last year when we discovered this place by mistake. We were looking for another roadside park just down the road but lucked out and found this one. What a wonderful discovery…..

We got there about 4:45pm, just in time to catch a little late Happy Hour. Ms Pat is enjoying the beautiful sunset as she looks out from the shelter towards Mexico, where the Pecos runs into the Rio Grande….

Even Ms Megabyte2 enjoyed the sights and Sunset! I was enjoying it so much I almost missed getting a picture. Here it is all ready below the horizon…..but trust me it was superb.

The next morning was another beautiful day.  We left about 7:30 am.  The sun was rising behind us as we continued on West. I was a little concerned because the wind came up during the night and blew something fierce. But this morning, it was quiet and calm. See...I told you God was our "Co-Pilot".

Ms Pat was eager to take the controls of the big 450hp Cummins diesel and chalked up a few hundred miles of “stick time” driving the Rig down the road.  She is a good driver and continues to get familiar with the Foretravel. It was a big help to me too, as we chalked up 477 miles and arrived at the “Dreamcatcher” Escapee’s RV Park in Deming NM at 4:30pm. Of course, it was only 3:30 here, so were again just in time for Happy Hour!!

We woke up this morning to 14 degrees.  YIKES!!! I'm happy to say that this "AquaHot" in the Foretravel is wonderful. We are snug as a bug in a rug! Nice and warm and didn't have to touch a drop of Propane.. So far this Rig is working out superb and we are "Lovin" everything about it.. Today we have an easy drive of 215 miles to Tucson,AZ. We will stop and spend some time with the Grandsons Michael and Stephen. I’m sure they miss their Father as much as we do and it will be good to see them.

Thursday morning we will complete our journey for the last 300 miles or so on up to North Ranch. We are anxious to get there and settle into our HOME….Our FIRST "stick & bricks" home in 15 years!!  It's exciting!  Paul and Nancy....we are sure looking forward to seeing you guys.  We will stop at your place FIRST and unhook our toad….sometime tomorrow!!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.....see you Sunday from HOME!!

God Bless!

Mike

This Blog is published every Wednesday and Sunday..

What’s A Guy To Do???

How can a guy write a Blog when he has a kitty on the keyboard? I try to get Ms Megabyte2 to write it for me but she can’t wake up enough.   She loves to jump up on my lap and sleep .... especially on Blog mornings!

Lots of times she gets into Ms Pat’s “IN” basket under her desk.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at David and Sue’s new house with 13 of our good RV’n friends….The Turkey and all the fixin’s including the Ham was especially good.   Mark (of Mark & Dale) was sick and couldn't come ... that's the reason we only had 13.  Hope you're feeling better, Mark.  I borrowed these pictures from Linda's Blog because I forgot my camera. :-(  Thanks Linda!

The wind has been blowing like crazy here for at least 3 days in a row. I was really getting fed up with it. Then yesterday....Wow, what a beautiful day!!  No wind at all!  It was around 43 deg at 7am when we did our walk. A little cool in the morning but it felt great and things warmed up to almost 70 in the afternoon…..Now that’s perfect!!

So we took advantage of such great weather to begin getting things ready to hit the road.  We have to get everything all loaded and prepare the Coach House to be closed up until next year or until the place is sold. We will finish up today and be ready to pull out tomorrow morning.  That will be it for another year in South Texas.   By this time next week, we will be all settled into our new house at North Ranch in Congress, AZ.

Last year, sometime around the end of March, we bought this little house at North Ranch near Wickenburg, AZ that we just love. Rollie and Gina were visiting us at the time and we all worked for 2 solid months fixing and furnishing the place just like we wanted it.  Then we took off for Custer for the summer.  We are so anxious to get back and enjoy all of our hard work.  I can hardly wait.  Rollie and Gina worked really hard helping us get moved in and make it "our" home.  We thank them both so much for all their efforts. Gina said “God sent us to help you”……. Praise the Lord for that.  Gina, you and Rollie are definitely Angels.  We love you and miss you very much.

Rollie and Gina are in Denham Springs, LA with their family until after Christmas but then they'll be headed back to North Ranch to spend some time with us.  We have lots of 4-wheeling and hiking to do.
It looks like another beautiful day is on hand for today. That will help us wrap up the lose ends today and be all ready to go by this time tomorrow.  We will travel up near Del Rio, TX tomorrow and stay the night there and continue on West Tuesday. We should  make EL Paso or maybe Deming, NM by Tuesday evening. Hopefully, we will be somewhere Wednesday morning that I can post a little Blog and let you know of our progress.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Don’t you just LOVE these College Football playoffs?  Two of our favorite teams won!! Nebraska beat Colorado and Florida State beat Florida!!!! That’s the first time in 6 years that FSU has beat UF!  Hallelujah!!!  FSU was due!!!  The down side is two more of our favorite teams lost.  LSU lost to Arkansas...sorry Rollie and Gina and Oklahoma State lost to Oklahoma...sorry Gene and Ann. :-)

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless you all!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Tomorrow is the big day. I can almost smell the food a cookin'! This will be the 4TH year we have spent Thanksgiving with our friends at Retama village down here in South Texas.

This year there will be about 14 of us getting together and enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner together. Everyone is bringing at least one or two dishes. Jim is deep frying a big Turkey, Sue is baking 2 more and Dale is cooking a Ham. There will be plenty of GREAT food and I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! :-)
This year we will be having ourThanksgiving Dinner at David and Sue’s brand NEW home.


David and Sue built this beautiful home here in Retama during the summer. They had an “open house” about a week ago and did an excellent job designing and decorating their home.  It is NICE!  It will be an honor to have Thanksgiving in their NEW HOME!!

This is Jim and Hazel’s new home down the street.  (above) They built it over the summer and just moved in.  It’s also a beauty!!  We haven't had the tour of the inside yet but hope to do so before we leave.

WOW!!  Everybody has been busy. This is Tom and Gayle’s new home. People are building Homes, Casitas and finishing Coach Houses all over Retama! All this was done since we left here in February. You can see Jim and Hazel’s home in the background.

These folks started with an RV lot like ours and like it here so much, they are building a house or an RV Port Casita home.  The prices are right here and you can't go wrong investing in a place here.  Most of these folks are keeping their RV lot and renting it out to Winter Texans.

At the other end of the street they are still building more. Soon this place will be all filled up and at the rate they are going, it won’t be long.

Now we are really getting excited. By this time next week, we will be on the road and somewhere near El Paso or maybe even in ARIZONA somewhere.  The weather has been great.  I hope it holds!
Sunday will most likely be my last Blog from Retama for this year.

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!!

WELCOME to our latest new followers:
Jerry Lu Larson
Mike Mills
bobm
george sharrer
danielle mcgaw
Susan

We are GLAD to have you with us and hope you will comment now and then. We just love to hear from our readers.  I know it's a job to comment on all the Blogs we read, so whenever you can, it's nice to know you're out there. Our counter shows that we get close to 400 hits on the days we publish and 200 on the days we don’t.  It's amazing… God Bless you all!

Safe Travels to all those that are traveling during the Holidays. Have a Happy Thanksgiving as we continue to give God our Praise for all he provides us.

Last but not least, don’t eat too much !!!  Ahh shoot.....GO AHEAD!!! :-)  Shhh....don't tell Ms Pat I said that.  But the diet starts again soon, right?  Yep, I’m with ya!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.

Right down the street from where we live down here in the Rio-Grande Valley in Texas is the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. This is a WORLD BIRDING center and people come from all over the world to see the Birds they have here.

Here is a picture of the entrance to the Park during the flood a few months ago.  This is where we usually do our morning walk and is a beautiful private place to walk. The South border of the park is the Rio Grande River. When the storm hit last summer and filled the big dam West of here, it flooded this area and this Park was underwater. The damage the water caused to the roads and trails caused the park to close.

These barricades greeted us this year when we started to take our morning walk in the State Park. We had to find another place to walk. A couple days ago we saw about 20-25 big semi dump trucks lined up going into the Park loaded with dirt being hauled in to help repair some of the damage. We heard that we could now walk down about a mile into the park. So yesterday, we made our first venture in.  It was early in the morning (of course:-) and no one else was around.

About a mile into the Park where the “loop” begins, the roads were closed. Both of these roads lead down to the Rio Grande River.

The fine print at the bottom says:
 “Most of the park was covered in 3-10ft of water. As of Nov 10th parts of the park remained underwater. Many of our facilities are currently under repair. Closed areas are not safe for the public”.

From the picture above and the one below, you can see remains of the high water and the condition it left the park in…

Mother Nature does leave her marks but there is probably a reason in the long run and good will come from it. It's not really devastation, it's just Mother Nature showing us who is boss. I’m sure the Park will one day be back up and running in good shape. Maybe even BETTER shape!

I was hoping another movie would come to town while we were here close to a theater. We saw the previews of a movie called TRUE GRIT that is coming out real soon. It’s a Western and a remake of the old John Wayne movie.  It will star Jeff Bridges as "Rooster Cogburn" but it doesn’t look like it will be out until right around Christmas. We’ll have to catch it some where else....looks like it will be good!

That's about it for this Sunday....real exciting isn’t it? :-)  Not much interesting happening around here, but that seems kinda nice, cause remember we’re “Kickin' Back”, trying to get some R & R. It will be busy, busy when we get to North Ranch!!

So, I’m back to "RESTIN"!!! The "kids", Rollie and Gina, are home in Louisiana for a few weeks and I bet they are “kickin' back” too! Rest up Kids cause when you get to the Ranch we’re gonna HIT IT!! Ya HEAR!!:-)  Walking, hiking, 4-wheeling......and a "little" fixin'.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Come on back Wednesday….

God Bless each and every one of you!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

WOW!! My Heart is Still RACING!!

One HOUR and 28 Minutes of pure EXCITEMENT………

Ms Pat and I don’t watch many movies at all, you could almost say NONE.  However, there is a big Theater just a few miles from our place down here in Mission, TX....it’s easy to get to, plenty of parking and a good chance for us to catch the latest Movie Releases that interest us. If you go to the early Matinee, it only costs $5.00 and it's never crowded.  So yesterday we decided to go see “UNSTOPPABLE” .

Well, let me tell you, it was an exciting movie!  I was worn out when it was over!!  WHAT A RIDE!! I used every muscle I had trying to slow that train down. I twisted and turned in my seat from the beginning until the end…..Whew!!!  I don’t usually get too excited but I just couldn’t calm myself down and Ms Pat was holding on to my arm because she was so excited.  I was actually kinda happy when it was over.  I couldn’t have taken much more.  Hey, what great entertainment and I always enjoy Denzel Washington, the star actor.

Maybe I had special interest in this movie because my son Patrick is a retired Engineer and drove one of these for many, many years and is now a Federal Agent for the Railroad.  I asked him what he thought of the Movie and he said he hadn’t seen it yet but he would check it out and let me know.

So now we’re going back to relaxing.....hitting the Hot Tub every other night at about 7pm.  I’m going to miss it when we leave in a couple of weeks.  But I am anxious to get back to the beautiful Cactus country…..

This is the picture of our new place at North Ranch, the Escapee RV Park, in Congress, AZ. It was taken just as we pulled out last Spring headed for Custer,SD.   Two weeks from today we should be there or real close. I can’t wait!!

It is a GREAT WEEK!!!

Thanks for stopping by….Hope to see you Sunday.

Remember to tell your kids you love them.  They may not be around forever!!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday..

Ms Megabyte2

This is the FIRST picture I ever took of Ms Megabyte2.  It was 2 years ago, the day after Christmas and I had just met her a couple weeks before. You can see she is skinny! She was a young, stray, wild kitten and lived under an old shed out behind our place here in Mission, TX. at Retama Village. So this is "home" for her.

Most of you know the story but for those that don't, let me explain about Megabyte2. Besides I just love telling about it.  I get up early...way before daylight and I was outside looking at the sky, checking the weather one morning and I heard this faint little "Meow" way back in the bushes. I looked closer and saw this little black and white kitty setting there meowing at me. She was obviously hungry. I called and called her but she wouldn't come anywhere near me and there was a 5' fence between us.  I saw her several mornings like this.  So one morning I went inside and ask Ms Pat if I could have a little saucer of warm milk  I got a question right back, "What in the world do you want THAT for"? I told her there was a little kitty out there and it was cold and hungry and I wanted to give it some warm milk.  "NO...we're not feeding some stray cat!", she responded.  I finally sweet talked Ms Pat into giving me some warm milk and that is the way I met Ms Megabyte2. I had no idea about the relationship that would develop.

I wrote a Blog about it way back on Jan 14, 2009 entitled "Meet My New Friend".   If you should care to read it, just click on the link.  

In that Blog, I was trying to convince myself that we were going to leave Ms Megabyt2 here when we headed West.  It didn't work and we continued to find out how God does work in mysterious ways. We are both so fond of this little Kitty and the joy she has brought into our lives. Right at a time when I didn't think there would ever be any "joy" ever again. Yes, that reinforced to me that God is there and working miracles. I love you Scott and Mikel.

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!

Welcome to:

Paul and Marti Dahl

and

Susan Bidniak

Our latest followers.....bringing the total way up to.....136!!!

We will be heading West to Arizona two weeks from tomorrow!!!

Thanks for stopping by...

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..

Our Retama place is FOR RENT!!

We decided to rent our beautiful lot at Retama Village each winter starting the first of December and the rest of the winter.  In fact, it's already rented for Jan, Feb and March 2011.  Next month (December) is open right now! Wouldn't you just love to spend a winter down here in the Valley of TEXAS?  Let me tell you it is beautiful and you will enjoy the weather.   We have one of the choice lots in the Village, as it's a corner lot and gives you more patio area than others.  The Club House, pool and other amenities here are outstanding and the best in the Valley!!  Click on this website and take a look....Retama Village.

Contact us and get December reserved....it won't be available long. That would give you a chance to see the area and keep out of the cold. You could also see if this is the place of your dreams. If you have any questions, just give us a call.  We are headed West on Nov 29, then the place will be yours until Jan 1ST.... 4 weeks and 2 days.


We are still kicking back and taking life easy.... even Megabyte2 is catching up on her rest:

Not much happening around here and we're hoping we can keep it that way.  It sure is giving me a good chance to climb all over and under this Foretravel motorhome...doing my best to understand it just a little better.  The more I see of it, the more impressed I am with it.

It's a GREAT WEEK!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Come on down here now....ya hear!

Mike

This Blog is Published every Wednesday and Sunday.

We have a new KITTY..

Here is Ms Pat’s Birthday present from Dale and Gina. A new KITTY!  Megabyte2 looks at it and says WOW....that is a BIG girl!!  Pat was “shocked” when Dale presented her with this beautiful KITTY at Happy Hour last Tuesday evening, Nov 2nd.  It is handmade out of sheet metal with a cutting torch.
It seems that way back about 3 weeks ago at the HDT (Heavy Duty Truck) Rally in Hutchinson, KS, the Ladies had a “shopping day” and this KITTY was spotted in one of the stores. Gina and Dale decided that Ms Pat should have it for her upcoming Birthday. They snuck back, bought it and kept it a secret until last Tuesday. Gina couldn’t be here to present it to Ms Pat but I can see her smiling face.  Wish you could have been here Gina.  It would have made "Mom's" birthday extra special.
.
We are kicking back! Before we got here, I told Ms Pat, it was “Kick Back” time. It has just been one thing after another, project after project. Every since we bought the house in North Ranch last winter, it has been non-stop, work on this,work on that, work, work, work.  Furnishing the house, redoing the yard, then going to our place in Custer and starting the building of our “cabin”.....wow, that was a job. Then quickly into preparing our Teton and Volvo for sale and moving out of it. Then searching for a Motorhome and getting moved over into it.....Whoa,, SLOW DOWN!!!  This is too fast a pace….let's slow down a little.    So we are “Kicking Back”!

Retama Village here in Mission, TX is such a beautiful place and I enjoy the Hot Tub so much. What a great way to slow down and relax. Ms Pat and I use it often in the evening. The Blog may not have much to report for the next couple weeks because we are on “idle” for a while………."Coolin it" !! It’s been a great ride, kinda like a whirlwind.  After it’s over you think “Whew”! We accomplished SO MUCH and thank God for everyone’s help. I believe we are really “set” now and can sit back and enjoy!!! Praise the Lord for all he provides! If we really do have to get “OLD” someday, now we can relax and enjoy it.  None of us are going to live forever.

Soon it will be time to head West to North Ranch and I’m excited about that. But until then, I hope there isn’t much happening…. we both need a little rest.

Rollie and Gina are out in the "Kentucky" woods somewhere boondocking so no new Blogs from them for a few days.  They've been pretty busy this summer and it's time for them to "kick back", too.  Hope you're having fun Kids!! 

I’m happy to welcome a few more follower’s:

Froggi Donna
David Cross
WD0AJG
Cruzin2some
Ed
Mike

Thank you all so much for taking the time to follow my Blog. It’s great having you aboard!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping……………God Bless you all.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..