Took this one tonight.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Avenue of the Flags
These are a couple of pictures of the street we live on in Portobelo Village here in Aransas Pass. It has gained the name of Avenue of the Flags or Street of the Flags depending on who you are talking to in the park. It is rather neat. Almost all the people on the street have made a flag holder out of PVC pipe and since we have lights on them, we fly them 24 hours a day.
Took this one tonight.
Took this one tonight.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Wood Carving
The Coastal Bend Wood Carvers hosted their annual show last weekend. They had a little over 1500 visitors in the 2 day event. It was an excellent show. Maybe not quite as good as last years. There didn’t seem to be as many larger spectacular items this year although there was still some of them. Following the show there were classes by various craftsmen from across the US. I took a 3 day class in medium relief carving that was taught by John Engler. John is from the Branson, Missouri area and is a nationally recognized carver. Following the carving class he also taught a 1 day painting class to paint the carvings. I also took that class. I have played at wood carving ever since we started coming to Aransas Pass for the winter but hadn’t really done much in the last 2 years. I think I will do more from now on but only time will tell. This is a picture of the finished painted carving that I did. I should mention we did have a great deal of help from John in both the carving and the painting. It is something I am really proud of. It seems I was never able to finish other carvings I have done.
I guess I had better do more caving since I ordered $150.00 in brushes and paint online.
I guess I had better do more caving since I ordered $150.00 in brushes and paint online.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Way behind on Blog
When I last posted, we were getting ready to leave for Branson, Missouri. That was the end of May 2012 so this may be the longest I have ever gone between posts. To use an old saying, a lot of water has flowed under the road, although due to the drought in Oklahoma it has been a whole lot less than is needed. We did the summer thing just as I said we would. Stayed in Loveland, Colorado for 1 month and then went to Eugene, Oregon to get the window replaced. That went well, the company that replaced the window was Coach Glass and glass replacement for Motor Homes is what they do. The bulk of their business is windshields but they also re-do insulated windows that are cloudy due to the seal leaking. They remove the window, take it apart, clean the glass, and then reseal it. They did a good job on my window and I would recommend them.
When we got back to Cushing we had a storm shelter installed in front of the existing pad. I grew up in Oklahoma and have never been overly afraid of tornadoes but after spending several nights with bad weather and strong winds I didn’t really feel comfortable during bad weather. It is a concrete in ground unit. We plan on extending the pad to cover the shelter.
We left Tulsa, Oklahoma along with 2 other couples on October the 11th and flew to Milan, Italy. We stayed in Italy for 3 weeks and then caught a cruise ship in Rome on November the 2nd for a 16 night cruise to Galveston, Texas. We spent 1 week in Brescia, Italy which is in Northern Italy on the train route from Milan to Venice. We then moved by train from Brescia to Florence, Italy where we had an apartment for 2 weeks. Although we overall had a great trip, the other 2 couples both had a bad experience in Italy. This is a copy of e-mails that Twila wrote and posted on Facebook talking about the events. The first was the first day (Oct 12) we arrived in Milan. The couples we were traveling with were Jack and Barbara Miller and Don and Kathie Bryan
On Fri. morning we arrived in Milan about 8:30 am after a very tiring 7 hr plane ride. 8:30 am Milan time would be 1:30 am Okla time. One of our suitcases didn't arrive with the plane. They said it would arrive at our hotel in Brescia the next day. (It arrived on Sun.) At the train station in Milan, Jack and Barbara had a bag stolen. The bag contained their passports. Don, Kathie, and I stayed at the train station while Jack, Barbara, and Larry went to the American Consulate to get their passports replaced . They returned about 5:00 and we caught the 5:30 train to Brescia. We checked into the hotel about 6:30, went to eat, then back to our beds for the night. It has gotten better each day. Would not want to go thru that first day again.
The next event was during a trip to Rome on Friday the 26th and went as follows.
We left the apartment at 8:00 this morning and went to catch the bus to the train station, then the train to Rome. This was uneventful. Then when we got to Rome we went to get on the subway to go to the Sistene Chapel. This is when it got interesting. We had to hurry onto the subway when the doors opened as it only stopped for a minute. People were getting off as we were trying to get on. ( Don is using a walker which Larry takes from him at the door of the bus, train, subway or whatever it is that we are taking at that particular time and Don climbs onto the bus, train,etc.) Don was holding onto his walker with both hands and he had his billfold in his front pocket because of pickpocets. As he was going in a young girl tried to go by him and at the same time got his billfold out of his front pocket. He knew it immediately and yelled "they got my wallet". Don grabbed the girl by the arm and she dropped the billfold on the platform. Another young man picked it up and handed it back to Don. Jack thought that young man had stolen the wallet so he grabbed him with both arms and was holding him until he realized that Don had his wallet. At the same time an older woman was trying to get Larry's wallet out of his front pocket and he moved away from her when he realized what she was doing. They took off and we didn't see them again. When we got on the subway, everyone was talking about it (in Italian, of course) and they really felt bad that it happened to us, especially Don who was handicapped. The rest of the subway ride went well and we saw the Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, then we took a taxi to the Trevi Fountain. The taxi ride was quite an experience. The driver dodged in and out of the traffic and all 6 of us were crammed in the taxi. Larry asked the driver if he was Mario Andretti and he said "No, He was his son." We ate in the area of the fountain and then we went to see it. There were so many people there we could hardly get close enough to throw a coin in, but Kathie & I did. Larry got a really good picture of us throwing the coins in. Everything has gone good till now. Our waiter told us how to get to the bus stop and Larry found a place to buy tickets. We were trying to get back to Rome by 5:45 because we had train tickets for that time to return to Florence. We were told that bus No. 175 would get us to the train station in about 10 min. OK, that would be good since it was just 4:15. We stood there and watched every other bus come and go but no 175. It started to rain, we still stood there and waited. We gave up and were going to go across the street to catch a taxi. Then bus 175 came and we rushed back to the corner to get on. It was packed full and there was no way we could get on. Back across the street to get a taxi. We succeeded, but had to take 2 taxis and said we would meet at the station. We had one train ticket for all six of us and it was almost 5:30 when we got to the station. Barbara, Don and Kathie had taken one taxi, and Larry, Jack and I the second one. Barbara, Don and Kathie were nowhere to be found when we got to the station. I tried to call Barbara and the call didn't go through. I texted her and she got that. I told her what track we were on and the car number and they had been out front and came to the track and somehow we all got on with about 30 seconds to spare. So we're on our way back and should arrive back n Florence about 7:15 then a bus to the apartment. When we got off the train and went to the bus stop, we wanted bus 11 but there were 2 others 17 & 36 that would take us close to the apartment. We didn't want to wait for 11 so we got on 17. Passengers were getting on and getting off at the stops and we had confidence that we would eventually get home. they all got off but the six of us and pretty soon, the driver pulled over and said something in Italian really loud and we got the message when he turned out the lights that this was the end of the line and he was going home. We got off and we were in the middle of nowhere with apartment buildings all around. We had no idea where we were or which way to go. After about 10 minutes a man was walking his dog , a German Shepherd that acted like he wanted to eat one of us. Jack stopped him and we talked to him a while and he was calling a taxi for us when another bus 17 came by.We got on it and rode it until it took us back to the bus station. We talked to a Phillipine young man on the bus and he told us that if we got off at the next stop and got on bus 6 it would take us where we wanted to go. We did, but weren't too sure he understood where we wanted to go. We got off bus 6 when we finally got back to the station where we had started and waited for bus 11. It brought us to our bus stop close to the apartment and it was after 9:00 when we got back to the apartment. We are going to bed early and I don't think we will venture out tomorrow.
We can now laugh about this and we couldn’t begin to tell all the good times we had. Thought I had better include the picture Twila mentioned at the Trevi Fountain.
We are now in Aransas Pass, Texas for the Winter.
When we got back to Cushing we had a storm shelter installed in front of the existing pad. I grew up in Oklahoma and have never been overly afraid of tornadoes but after spending several nights with bad weather and strong winds I didn’t really feel comfortable during bad weather. It is a concrete in ground unit. We plan on extending the pad to cover the shelter.
We left Tulsa, Oklahoma along with 2 other couples on October the 11th and flew to Milan, Italy. We stayed in Italy for 3 weeks and then caught a cruise ship in Rome on November the 2nd for a 16 night cruise to Galveston, Texas. We spent 1 week in Brescia, Italy which is in Northern Italy on the train route from Milan to Venice. We then moved by train from Brescia to Florence, Italy where we had an apartment for 2 weeks. Although we overall had a great trip, the other 2 couples both had a bad experience in Italy. This is a copy of e-mails that Twila wrote and posted on Facebook talking about the events. The first was the first day (Oct 12) we arrived in Milan. The couples we were traveling with were Jack and Barbara Miller and Don and Kathie Bryan
On Fri. morning we arrived in Milan about 8:30 am after a very tiring 7 hr plane ride. 8:30 am Milan time would be 1:30 am Okla time. One of our suitcases didn't arrive with the plane. They said it would arrive at our hotel in Brescia the next day. (It arrived on Sun.) At the train station in Milan, Jack and Barbara had a bag stolen. The bag contained their passports. Don, Kathie, and I stayed at the train station while Jack, Barbara, and Larry went to the American Consulate to get their passports replaced . They returned about 5:00 and we caught the 5:30 train to Brescia. We checked into the hotel about 6:30, went to eat, then back to our beds for the night. It has gotten better each day. Would not want to go thru that first day again.
The next event was during a trip to Rome on Friday the 26th and went as follows.
We left the apartment at 8:00 this morning and went to catch the bus to the train station, then the train to Rome. This was uneventful. Then when we got to Rome we went to get on the subway to go to the Sistene Chapel. This is when it got interesting. We had to hurry onto the subway when the doors opened as it only stopped for a minute. People were getting off as we were trying to get on. ( Don is using a walker which Larry takes from him at the door of the bus, train, subway or whatever it is that we are taking at that particular time and Don climbs onto the bus, train,etc.) Don was holding onto his walker with both hands and he had his billfold in his front pocket because of pickpocets. As he was going in a young girl tried to go by him and at the same time got his billfold out of his front pocket. He knew it immediately and yelled "they got my wallet". Don grabbed the girl by the arm and she dropped the billfold on the platform. Another young man picked it up and handed it back to Don. Jack thought that young man had stolen the wallet so he grabbed him with both arms and was holding him until he realized that Don had his wallet. At the same time an older woman was trying to get Larry's wallet out of his front pocket and he moved away from her when he realized what she was doing. They took off and we didn't see them again. When we got on the subway, everyone was talking about it (in Italian, of course) and they really felt bad that it happened to us, especially Don who was handicapped. The rest of the subway ride went well and we saw the Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, then we took a taxi to the Trevi Fountain. The taxi ride was quite an experience. The driver dodged in and out of the traffic and all 6 of us were crammed in the taxi. Larry asked the driver if he was Mario Andretti and he said "No, He was his son." We ate in the area of the fountain and then we went to see it. There were so many people there we could hardly get close enough to throw a coin in, but Kathie & I did. Larry got a really good picture of us throwing the coins in. Everything has gone good till now. Our waiter told us how to get to the bus stop and Larry found a place to buy tickets. We were trying to get back to Rome by 5:45 because we had train tickets for that time to return to Florence. We were told that bus No. 175 would get us to the train station in about 10 min. OK, that would be good since it was just 4:15. We stood there and watched every other bus come and go but no 175. It started to rain, we still stood there and waited. We gave up and were going to go across the street to catch a taxi. Then bus 175 came and we rushed back to the corner to get on. It was packed full and there was no way we could get on. Back across the street to get a taxi. We succeeded, but had to take 2 taxis and said we would meet at the station. We had one train ticket for all six of us and it was almost 5:30 when we got to the station. Barbara, Don and Kathie had taken one taxi, and Larry, Jack and I the second one. Barbara, Don and Kathie were nowhere to be found when we got to the station. I tried to call Barbara and the call didn't go through. I texted her and she got that. I told her what track we were on and the car number and they had been out front and came to the track and somehow we all got on with about 30 seconds to spare. So we're on our way back and should arrive back n Florence about 7:15 then a bus to the apartment. When we got off the train and went to the bus stop, we wanted bus 11 but there were 2 others 17 & 36 that would take us close to the apartment. We didn't want to wait for 11 so we got on 17. Passengers were getting on and getting off at the stops and we had confidence that we would eventually get home. they all got off but the six of us and pretty soon, the driver pulled over and said something in Italian really loud and we got the message when he turned out the lights that this was the end of the line and he was going home. We got off and we were in the middle of nowhere with apartment buildings all around. We had no idea where we were or which way to go. After about 10 minutes a man was walking his dog , a German Shepherd that acted like he wanted to eat one of us. Jack stopped him and we talked to him a while and he was calling a taxi for us when another bus 17 came by.We got on it and rode it until it took us back to the bus station. We talked to a Phillipine young man on the bus and he told us that if we got off at the next stop and got on bus 6 it would take us where we wanted to go. We did, but weren't too sure he understood where we wanted to go. We got off bus 6 when we finally got back to the station where we had started and waited for bus 11. It brought us to our bus stop close to the apartment and it was after 9:00 when we got back to the apartment. We are going to bed early and I don't think we will venture out tomorrow.
We can now laugh about this and we couldn’t begin to tell all the good times we had. Thought I had better include the picture Twila mentioned at the Trevi Fountain.
We are now in Aransas Pass, Texas for the Winter.
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