Charity Auction and Cook Off

Last Saturday we went to a Charity Auction and a Mexican Food Cook Off.  It was about 4 or 5 miles from our campground.  It was held at a local church and was for the local school, church, and fire department.  It is an annual event and is really a large event.  I would guess there were at least 300 cars in the parking area when we got there.  They had food booths set up and they sold tickets for 50 cents each then the booths listed their prices by so many tickets for a taco and so forth.  Bert and I both bought $30 each.  The food was really good.  Bert even got some goat meat in a gravy sauce.  We all tasted it and it was good.  I don’t remember what it was called.  We also had brisket tacos and fajita tacos for $3 each.  They also had a competition going on between some of the different ranches and I think the fire department.  I have no idea who won.  We were told that last year the auction and food booths raised over $500,000.00.  Each grade in the school is given a theme for an auction item and the class (probably the parents) make up the baskets or whatever for that item.  The local ranchers and business people really turn out for this and pay big money at the auction.  They had some picture taking opportunities so of course I took advantage of them.

Bert seemed to be most interested in this display.

I’m not sure what he’s pointing at, Twila wouldn’t let me get any closer.

Twila’s Christmas Cactus is blooming so I thought I would put in a picture of it.

8th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 8th Anniversary.  It seems like it has been a roller coaster ride since we said “I do”.  We have been on two trans-Atlantic crossings.  One from Galveston to Rome and the other from Barcelona to Galveston.  There have been other cruises up the coast of Alaska, to Mexico, and to the Caribbean more than once.  In addition to the cruises we have taken long trips in our Motor homes to the West coast, the Northeast including New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Southeastern USA, and of course our 3 1/2 month trip last summer to Alaska.  Then there have been our summers in Colorado and the winters in South Texas.  We are really blessed to be able to do what we want when we want.  We are so blessed to have good health and each other.

We went to Mexico yesterday morning with Bert and Janna Huffman.  Janna had to pick up a device from the dentist to stop her from grinding her teeth at night and we just went for the ride and the company.

Yesterday evening Twila and I went back into McAllen, Texas to the Olive Garden for supper.  We had asked Bert and Janna to go but they said we needed the time together.  That Bert is so romantic.  Janna is so lucky to have him.  Right.  Bless her heart for putting up with him.

Ye olde flea market

We went to the Donna, Texas Flea Market today.  It is a fairly large flea market.  It isn’t in the range of Canton, Texas but is larger than most flea markets I have seen.  I took a few pictures outside but there is a large building with lots of inside booths as well as smaller buildings.

I looked most of it over and ended up buy a box of 12 volt RV light bulbs.  Ten to a box for $4.00.  A great buy and a good time equals a good day.  Yes Twila did manage to find a few things to buy also.

Lazy Palm RV Ranch, Edinburg, Texas

It’s been awhile since my last post.  I know from experience that when you are reading a post regularly and someone isn’t posting on a regular basis it can be irritating.  I also know from experience and from reading other blogs how hard it is to actually post on a regular basis.  You think, I haven’t done anything interesting, no one wants to know what I’m doing.  However from reading other people blogs I know I am always glad when they post a new entry.  Some are better than others but I still want to read them.  With that in mind I will bring you up to date on what we are doing in Edinburg, Texas.

We got here on the 14th after a non eventful trip down.  When we checked in, the lady at the office brought us some lemons.  Big deal huh?  Yes they were a big deal.  In fact they are the biggest lemons I have even seen.

This is a shot of our RV’s in the park.

We have made our first visit to Progresso, Mexico for our prescription drugs and candy.  We always stock up on both.  The medicine that Twila gets for her restless leg syndrome is over $200 for 3 months in the USA but we buy it here for about $66 for 3 months.  We also buy the generic Prilosec for under $7 for a bottle of 120 pills and yes they work fine.  I think these are about $24 for just 42 pills at Walmart.

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving Dinner at the clubhouse tomorrow.  Maybe I will remember to take my camera.

Sad duty

I did something today that I don’t like to do.  I went to a funeral.  My Grandson Ben’s Great Grandfather on his mothers side died. His name is Frank Turner.  His family and my family are connected in two different ways.  My youngest son, Tate, married Kami Harris.  Her mother was Karen Turner, Franks daughter.  Then my middle son, Todd, married Jeanette Turner.  Her father is Joe Turner a brother to Frank.  Joe is also deceased in fact Frank was the last of his family.  Of course you don’t go for Frank other than respect for a life well lived.  You go for his loved ones that are left behind.  They say that death is just a part of life but it is a part that no one likes.

After the funeral Twila and I went to Stillwater and picked up our granddaughter Angel.  She is a joy.  I was only blessed with boys until I married Twila so a little girl doesn’t have any trouble wrapping me around her little finger.  When she crawls into my lap and tells Twila “ This is my PaPa” she pretty much melts my heart.

The Oklahoma/Texas AM game just ended and Oklahoma got their heads handed to them.  Thank goodness Oklahoma State won their game today against Baylor.

Planning ……..

We’re in the countdown mode now for Texas.  Our feet have already started to itch.  We plan on pulling out the morning of Friday the 12th.  Our first stop will be at the Winstar Casino just before the Texas border.  We will stay the night in their RV Park and then plan on stopping at “Motor Home Specialist” just south of Fort Worth.  We love to look at Motor Homes and this place has a jillion of them.  We would love to get a newer MH but with the tumble in price ours took when the economy when south it just doesn’t make any sense right now, maybe in a couple of years.  Right now I am planning on taking the carpet out of the living room area, except for under the slide areas, and then installing either tile or laminate wood flooring.  I hope to get this done this winter in Texas.

Next Spring I plan on having my little boo boos on the exterior fixed.  Looks like that will be in the neighborhood of $6000.  I’m hoping I’ve learned how to drive by now but only time will tell for sure.

This year we are going farther south for the first month.  We are headed for Edinburg, Texas which is about 30 miles north of McAllen, Texas.  We are going down with Bert and Janna Huffman.  They are also members of our Good Sam Chapter here in Oklahoma.

I won’t ever do it again

We have had Angel and Justin since Wednesday night.  They are grandkids and no that isn’t what I won’t do again.  Even if I said we weren’t going to do it again, which I’m not since I love them, I wouldn’t be married anymore if I did.  Anyway, we took them to Silver Dollar City Thursday evening and if you go after 3pm you can come back the next day for free.  Yesterday, we went back for the free day and Angel talked me into riding the “Powder Keg” with her.  Yes, that’s what I won’t ever do again.  The Powder Keg is a roller coaster from …, well you know.  The only thing I can say good about it is “it is smooth”.  It starts you out by accelerating from 0 to 145,000 miles per hour in about a half a second.  I don’t know how they do that but they do and then it goes over the first hump that is designed to wrap your feet up over your ears and I’m sure it would if they didn’t have you strapped in.  It does a series of twists and turns that I guess are designed to train a new generation of fighter pilots.  The good news is it doesn’t take long to get back to where you started.  Now you have to understand all this is taking place with this 4th grade girl holding her arms in the air while I am trying to permanently deform the bar holding me in this death trap.  She is yelling for me to hold my arms up and I am telling her there is no way that’s going to happen!!!  It is really designed to make a 6 foot 2 inch man feel like a wimp!  The only good thing is that Justin says he’s not riding it, OK so I’m trying to use a 4th grade boy to make me look good and yes I know it isn’t working.

Later in the day Angel try’s to get me to ride the “Wild Fire”.  This is another roller coaster that does 5 loops.  I may have cried a little in my embarrassment but I didn’t do it and then to put the icing on the cake, Justin did.  They must have ridden it about 4 times in a row and then, yeh you guessed it they went back to the Powder Keg and Justin road it and wanted to do it again.  Luckily the park was closing so I was able to slink off towards the car.

But enough of the un-pleasantries.  We went out to lunch on Wednesday the 20th to celebrate the 54th wedding anniversary of our good friends Clarence and Virginia Byrom.  When they had their 50th anniversary I gave Virginia a pin that said “I must be a Saint” and now she has up and made 4 more years.  Can’t you just tell by looking at him how hard that must be?  That’s Jack and Barbara Miller in the background and of course my darling wife, Twila.  Hope that got me some points.

All kidding aside, you have to do something right to make it that many years.  We wish them many more.

Still at Branson

I didn’t mention last time that our good friends Jack and Barbara Miller are also here.  They are also members of our Good Sam chapter in Oklahoma.  They got here on Sunday the 10th.  We have been playing cards every night and running around during the day.  We went to Silver Dollar City one day, this was a dry run in preparation for grandson Justin and granddaughter Angel coming up next week for their Fall break.  Jack and Barbara’s grandchildren, Cole and Ali are coming at the same time.

We went to the Tanager's Outlet Mall and I took a picture to show how much some the trees have already turned.

We also played miniature golf last night here at Treasure Lake.  Jack turned out to be the winner but I don’t think any of us are a threat to “Tiger”.

For those that don’t know, there is no charge to play miniature golf at Treasure Lake, in fact they furnish the putter, balls, and a score card.  They also have a free indoor and outdoor swimming pool.

This evening we are going down to Branson Landing.  This is a shopping area with lots of restaurants and a water show that has several nozzles and works in rhythm with music.  At night they add colored lights to the show.  Again no charge.  I heard it cost a million dollars to install.  It’s as good as anything I have seen in Las Vegas.

Branson, Missouri

Yes it’s tough duty but someone has to do it.  We went to our Good Sam chapter campout last Wednesday the 6th at Lake Heyburn just west of Kellyville, Oklahoma and stayed till Sunday afternoon.  As usual we had a great time visiting with everyone.  Since we will be leaving for Texas on the 13 of November we won’t see some of them until next spring.  We left Sunday and drove up I-44 to the Coach light RV Park just Northeast of Joplin, Missouri on highway 71 North.  We stayed the night and then drove on up to Treasure Lake RV in Branson on Monday.  We plan on being here until Sunday morning the 24th.

I know most of the people that read my blog know about Treasure Lake but in case there are any that don’t, I will explain a little about it.  Treasure lake is a membership owned RV Park.  You pay a one time fee of about $1000 to $1200 for a deed to a portion of the ownership of the park and then $180 a year for maintains fees.  You are then able to stay for 3 weeks at a time for only $5 a night with full hook ups.  There are no limits as to how many 3 week stays you can have a year as long as you are out of the park for 1 week in between stays.  The amazing thing is that you don’t even know you are in Branson.  You can’t see or even hear Branson.  Their are 4 different camping areas and I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 sites.  We have never had a problem getting a site.  I took a few pictures of the area around our motor home to show how pretty it is here.

 

Motor Home Steps

Well I got it done.  It wasn’t easy but it was doable.  Here’s what I did, it wasn’t rocket science but it did take a lot of doing.  I took the old steps over to my nephew’s house in Perkins, Oklahoma.  He, Mike Prough, has been a welder and is presently an inspector over the manufacture of storage tanks in Cushing, Oklahoma.  He has a pretty good metal working shop in his garage.  He cut out a rectangle in the mounting surface of the old steps using his grinder and a cut off wheel.

Then he cut off all the lower steps.

He also made me some plates with a 1/2 inch hole drilled in them and a 3/8 inch nut tack welded to them.

With these I came back to the motor home and bolted the frame (second picture)to the motor home using the plates with the nuts on top.

Now it was time to take the motor home over to Mike, where he was able to reach up through the frame and weld the little plates to the motor home.

Now all that was left was to take the old frame down and install the new steps which is all I wanted to do in the first place.

All this because Gulf Stream didn’t have any backup on the nuts.  Of course they didn’t need any, since all they did was start the nuts and then put the old impact wrench on and tighten them down.  No problem since they didn’t have to take them off.  This is what the frame that the steps bolted to looked like when I finally got the steps off.

you will notice that they had taken a cutting torch and notched out the frame.  This is not what I would call good craftsmanship.

Oklahoma Sunset

As you can see by the date on the pictures, I took these quite a while ago.  I had them in my camera and I just downloaded them into my computer tonight.  Is this a sunset or what!!!!

We haven’t been doing much, just seeing the grandkids and such.  We did go to the Oklahoma State Fair in Oklahoma City with my brother Bill, his wife Pat and their two granddaughters.  They took their motor home and we took ours and spent two nights at the Rockwell RV Park.  We took Angel our granddaughter.

I am presently trying to change the electric steps on the motor home.  Just a simple job, right?  Wrong.  It should be, but it isn’t.  The steps are attached with 4 – 3/8” bolts so it should have been - unscrew the bolts, remove the steps, bolt the new steps on.  Job done.  Wrong.  Three of the four bolts wouldn’t come off since the nuts that are on the other side of the solid steel top plate and the support bracket just turned and therefore wouldn’t come loose.  I finally got a hacksaw blade in enough to cut two of the remaining three bolts and then was able to reach in and put a wrench on the last nut.  Now I have to figure out how I am going to put the new steps on without backup nuts.  Just another example of people making RV’s and not really caring how someone is able to repair them.  I’ll let you know how I solve this since I have to solve it.

Catching up

It’s been a while since I visited my blog.  It doesn’t seem like everyday doing is nearly as interesting as traveling and of course it isn’t.  We have been busy since we got back, at least busy for us.  When you’re retired you don’t have to get everything done in one day or even one week.

Probably the most interesting and enjoyable thing we have done is the annual “Friendship Campout” with our chapter and the other chapters in our region of the Good Sam Club.  The campout as usual was held at Shawnee, Oklahoma at the Pottawatomie Campground.  I don’t remember the exact number of RVs in attendance but I think it was about 40 which made it the largest Friendship Campout to date.

Again I don’t remember how many members of our chapter were there but I do remember we had the most.  Of course it could have been because the regional director, Mona Butts, is from our chapter.  Mona had announced she wouldn’t be in charge of the Friendship Campout next year but later said she had decided to stay for another year.  That was really good news since she does such a great job.  As with most things we do as a chapter, we had lots of good food.  Mona had a local Barbeque restaurant cater one meal and we had a pot luck dinner one evening.

Twila’s gone to Tulsa today with my brother Bill’s wife, Pat, and Twila’s daughter, Terri, so I’m home alone.  We have been busy getting the motor home ready for traveling again.  We had taken a lot of stuff out of the motor home when we went to Alaska.  Some to lighten the load and some because we wouldn’t need it.  For instance, we didn’t take our jeep so I removed the tow bar from the back of the motor home to shorten the length we had to pay for on the ferry.  I now have it re-installed in preparation for going to Texas for the Winter.  I had also taken two spare tires for the motor home with us to Alaska and was really happy we didn’t need them.  I had taken the tires without wheels but they were still really heavy.  I have now moved them back into storage.

Well my mind’s starting to wander so I guess I will quit for now.  We are planning on going to the fair at Oklahoma City this weekend with my brother Bill and Pat.  They also have a motor home and we will be staying at a campground Friday and Saturday nights.

Cost wrap up, Alaska trip

I didn’t keep a complete tab on all the costs of the trip to Alaska so I will list the items I did keep track of and generalize on the other items.  First and maybe the largest item was diesel.  I spent a little over $3900 on the round trip.  We went 9175 miles and I got something like 7.5 miles to the gallon which included all the running of the diesel generator during all the dry camping we did.  Camping cost varied but most of the time it was in the neighborhood of $30 a night.  Of course if you averaged the number of nights we used a campground with the number we dry camped it might be as low as $10 a night.  Food in Canada is very high compared to what we pay in the USA and if you eat out it is outlandish.  The price of food in the stores in Alaska is about 25% more than here but the cost of eating out is at least 50 to 75% more.  The cost of the motor home on the ferries was $2408.  My cost was less than Gary’s since I didn’t take my Jeep tow car.  Of course this is an optional way to go or return, driving would be cheaper even with the price of fuel.  Knowing what we know now I feel the trip could be cut from 3 1/2 months to 2 1/2 months.  We had several days that we had to stretch the time in order to get to Haines to get on the ferry the day we had scheduled back in February.  you do need some days for resting up, at least you do if you’re my age.  I did drag a little on the ferry with a 41 foot motor home but it didn’t tear anything up.  I didn’t even mention in the blog that I had a bird hit my windshield on the right side which caused a 4” crack.  Gary fixed it and if you don’t know it’s there you can’t see it.  Then after we got back in the USA I got a star chip on the left side which again Gary fixed.  You can’t beat having a windshield repair guy for a traveling companion.

Day 105, Cushing, Oklahoma

Well it’s over.  I thought the time to leave for Alaska would never get here and now it’s over.  This is the longest trip we have ever made.  We live in the motor home but we normally spend long periods of time in one place.  We go to Texas in the Winter, Colorado in the Summer, and here in the Cushing area in the Spring and Fall.  Of course we make trips to Treasure Lake at Branson and go to some of the campouts that our Good Sam Chapter has once a month but this was on the move most of the time from May the 22nd to September the 4th.

Ok, what did I think of Alaska and would I do it again?  I had a great time most of the time.  It was one of the wettest coldest summers in recent years.  Not my words but what we were told by Alaskans themselves but it was still great.  Would I do it again?  The trip to Alaska was on my “Bucket List” and guess what, it still is.  We are already planning on going back again in 2 years.  My younger brother Bill and his wife Pat want to go and we have no problem going again.  It would be great if it is warmer so we could sit out at night around a fire but if not it is still the Last Frontier.  We probably won’t go up the “Ice Road” to Prudhoe Bay again and we will probably cut the trip to 2 1/2 months instead of 3 1/2 months since we know how many days we will want to stay at the different spots along the way.  We really enjoyed dry camping on the side of the road when we could.  We saw other people doing this with one rig but I felt better having another RV with us.

I don’t know how often I will post a new blog now that we are back.  I may try to post every 2 or 3 days or if we do something or go somewhere more often.  I have been very awed by the number of people reading the blog and hope you have enjoyed it.  I also hope it might influence more people to make the trip to Alaska.  You wouldn’t regret it.

Day 104, Russell, Kansas

Really not anything to talk about today since it was just a traveling day.  The drive from Idaho Springs to Denver was just as expected.  There was a series of sharp turns just as I came to the first long hill so I had to go all the way down to 2nd and just grind it out to the top.  After that it wasn’t bad till I started downhill into Denver.  They had 5 miles of 6% grade.  I was able to use 4th gear and use my exhaust brake.  I still had to use my brakes every once in a while to keep my speed down.

What can I say about Denver Traffic?  Most people just stayed with the flow of the traffic but of course there had to be those few that were more important than everyone else.  They would weave in and out of all 3 lanes and if necessary pull in front of a 30,000 plus motor home as if I could stop on a dime.  The good news is we made it safely through to the east side on I-70 and from then on it was just set the cruise control at 68 and enjoy the scenery.  Wrong!!!!  There is no scenery on I-70 going across East Colorado and West Kansas but you can make good time.  It was 401 miles from our campground at Idaho Springs to the Triple J RV Park in Russell, Kansas.  We left at 9am and got here at 4:15pm and that was with a stop at Limon, Colorado at the Flying J for fuel and to eat lunch.  I had gone 639.72 miles since filling up at Cokeville, WY and I put in 79.960 gallons at $3.039 per gallon.  I got 8 mpg and it cost me $243.00.

Tomorrow we will be back at my son’s house in rural Cushing, OK.  I will try to do a wrap up of the trip, what we expected and what we found.

Well aren’t you glad I didn’t have anything to talk about?

Day 103, Idaho Springs, Colorado

This morning we drove up Mt Evans.  It is the highest paved road in North America.  It was 13 miles from our campground to the entrance to the road and then another 13 miles up the mountain.  Twila and I had gone up the mountain when we were here last year in June.  I thought you might find the difference in these two picture interesting.  The first picture was taken the 17th of June 2009 and the second picture today.

Both pictures are of Summit Lake which is about 5 miles from the top of the mountain.  The next two pictures are in the same order but you couldn’t tell by what Twila is wearing.  The first time we went up we had no idea what it would be like on the top so she didn’t even have a jacket.  As you can see in the picture taken today we had learned our lesson.

When we were there in 2009 there was snow everywhere so we didn’t see the Mountain Goats we saw today.  We drove all the way to Alaska and came back to Colorado to get the best pictures of Mountain Goats.

I also got a picture of an animal I had never seen in the wild.  I had seen stuffed ones in some of the National Forest Welcome Centers but never alive.  They are Pika.  This one was about 8 inches long and was really fast when it moved.

Day 102, Idaho Springs, Colorado

We drove from Loveland to Idaho Springs today.  We had planned on staying at a campground in Wheat Ridge, Colorado but we don’t normally reserve sites and when we got there they were full so we came on down to Idaho Springs.  We are in the Cottonwood RV Camp.  This is the same RV Park we spent a month in last summer.  Two Nights were $70 and some change.

The drive down was a long pull from the Denver area until we broke over the top and headed down again.  It will be reversed on the way out and I’m not looking forward to it.

After we got parked we loaded up and went to Central City, Colorado.  Central City is an old mining town that had seen better days until the town became mostly Casinos.  Gary and I played $2 minimum Black Jack and the girls played the slots.  That’s about all I want to say about that or had better say about it.  The good news is they had a casino that had a Prime Rib dinner for $2.99 each and it was good.

Day 101, Loveland, Colorado

We drove down to Loveland and checked into a campground.  It was the Carter Lake Campground.  It had pretty level sites but only 30 amp electric.  It was $31 a night which is cheap compared to other RV parks in the area.  The high cost is due to the closeness to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  After we got parked we headed for the Park.  Twila and I had been to the Park when we took a trip West in 2004 and came back through Colorado on the way home.

There is one road in the Park that isn’t paved.  It goes one way only from the East to the West and ends up at the Alpine Welcome Center.  The road is called the Old Falls River Road.  It isn’t a 4 wheel drive road but it is a dirt/gravel road all the way.  It has some of the most spectacular views in the park.

I also took a picture of a waterfall that came down a very narrow chasm cut in the rock.

We also saw some Grouse on the side of the road.  I was no more than 8 foot away when I took this picture.

 

After we got to the welcome center we found out they were re-surfacing the parking lot and we had to wait until they let cars through which was about once an hour.

The trip back was on the highest through road in the USA.  It is over 12,000 feet high at the highest.

As we drove back we saw a large herd of Elk grazing on the side of the mountain below the road.

These are some more pictures I took.