Well, That was a Fun Month

In the past month we’ve been to three rallies. We started from Garland on the 16th of October for Arizona. Our first stop was a Wal-Mart lot in Odessa, TX. Night 2 was spent at a KOA in Lordsburg, NM. By night 3 we finally got somewhere to have some fun.


We stopped to see some RV friends from our ToS group, Ernie & Linda Fulford in Sierra Vista, AZ. Sierra Vista is southeast 60 miles of Tucson. It lies at the gate to Fort Huachuca, where I spent my army AIT training in 1965. Ernie, a retired army colonel, worked for years at the Fort and took us on a grand tour of the base. There wasn’t much I recognized from when I was there. The “temporary” WWII barracks I stayed in had been demolished and there were weeds growing through the roads that were near them. We had a great time, Ernie made us a good lunch and we enjoyed a wonderful Mexican Dinner.


The next port of call was Mesa, AZ where we had our first Rally. It was the South West Regional Safari International Rally. We enjoyed good food, good fellowship, and a lot of fun. There was a dinner at the Organ Stop Pizza Parlor a famous eatery in the Phoenix . We even had a jousting tournament using golf carts, blindfolds, a PVC Pipe, orange cones, and a target grid.


From Mesa some of us convoyed to our 2nd rally in Tucson.

This was the Monaco/Navistar New Frontier Rally. This is the first chance the Monaco, Beaver, Safari, and Holiday Rambler coach owners had to hear from the new owners, Navistar. There was good news for the company and not so good news for the owners of RV’s before the new company was formed.

We left Tucson for our third rally at Lake Medina in the Texas hill country. It was one of our Thousand Trails Gatherings. We played games for a solid week, oh yea, we had meals and a business meeting too.

Well we’re back in Garland now but will leave again in a few days for Katy for Thanksgiving.

We're Off Again

We haven't spent any time working on the house these last few weeks. MH has been busy doing paperwork and I have been playing with, I mean programming, my new iPhone. We will be leaving on a short trip on Thursday the 15th and will return on November 15th. We will be attending a Safari International Southwest Regional Rally in Mesa, AZ. Then we will go to the Navistar rally in Tucson, AZ. On our way back to Garland we will stop at the TTofTX lake Medina rally.

Navistar is the company that bought Monaco (who bought Safari) and is having a “Welcome Home” rally to tell us what’s going on with the company and to hear from the coach owners. At least that’s what the invitation said. It’s been a little difficult these last few years for us. First we hear Safari is being sold to Monaco, then Monaco says they are eliminating the Trek line, and a few weeks ago we here are tow car company, Saturn, is no longer in business. Makes you wonder what’s next.

R&R from the House Work

We are almost finished with our September rallies. We leave Sunday for home from Shawnee, OK.

We will be home until October 15th or 16th and leave again for two rallies in Arizona the last two weeks of the month.

The two September rallies have been fun. Our TTofTX group played lots of games and the 6-State rallies are always have a lot of information in their seminars.

A Busy August

We’ve been hard at work in the garage (finished except for small touches), the back porch (about half done, at least we have everything in the correct stack and can see a lot of floor), and the deck (we now have a plan to scrap the old wood deck and what the new one will look like). We uncovered the new glass topped table and 6 chairs we got at Sears several years ago and put it on the old deck. The temperature has dropped enough to sit outside in the mornings.

This coming Tuesday we leave for Thousand Trails at Lake Whitney for our September Rally and from there go to Shawnee, OK to work at the 6-state Rally. In all we’ll be gone about three weeks.

Lake Whitney TTofTX Rally Planning Trip

We were back working in the garage after we got back from our R&R trip. Then Thursday we packed-up the coach to head for Lake Whitney TTN Park to meet with the Donnelly’s (the wagon masters) and the park manager to plan our September rally.

We go back home Monday to the garage and patio.

We Escaped for a Week of R & R

Last week we just couldn't take the house another minute. We found a timeshare week at Runaway Bay, just 2 hours northwest of Garland, and did almost nothing for a week.

It wasn't the the most opulent timeshare in which we had ever stayed but it wasn't in the house, garage, or on the patio. MH got caught-up on some of her computer work (and sleep) and I read some books.

We did visit the area twice by shopping in Bridgeport and going to the new Harry Potter film in Decatur.

More Tree Removal

This is all that was left of the two large American Elms from our backyard. The tree closest to the patio was dropping limbs on the porch roof and had already destroyed a glass-top table that was sitting on the deck. The tree at the back of the yard was dropping limbs on our fence, it was time for them to go.

Tree Removal

This tree is by the deck and back porch
This one is in the back corner of our yard
Note the split in both of these stumps, both trees were full of ants.

Are We Having Fun Yet

The new air conditioner is working great. We haven’t had a chance to try out the heat strips this week with the temperature being over 100 every day. We finally opened the elliptical-step-exercise-thing we got on sale at Sam’s. It’s been sitting out there in its box for months now and I don’t feel one ounce lighter ;-)

We’ve gotten most of the lights up and rewired. It was a real challenge moving things around before with all the extension cords hung from nails, bent clothes hangers, and snaked over the shelving. We found some light bars at Home Depot that have wireless switches. Now, instead of one light switch at the door, we have three each for different areas of the garage.
Coming up this week we are having two trees taken down in the backyard. They are both American Elms and have been dropping limbs, at inconvenient times, and doing damage for years now. With our new windows in on the patio, we don’t need any accidents. While we were gone a while back a limb from the tree by the patio fell on our glass topped table and destroyed it.

We get to do this “remodel” for one more week and then we get a break. We are using a week of our time share for some R&R. It’s not far from home, just west of Denton, but it’s out of the house.

Another Week Working in the House

We’re still working in the garage. Boy have we collected a lot of “Stuff”. The window (Wall) air-conditioner unit we had in the garage finally gave up. I guess it just got tired, after all MH got it when her parents didn’t need it anymore and they bought it in 1981. It was an 18,000 BTU unit and we replaced it with a new 23,500 BTU unit with heat strips for winter use. Man that thing’s heavy!!

My first selling venture on eBay didn’t get much response. Eleven people viewed the page but there was one person that watched the item. MH and I thought they were waiting until the last minute to make a bid, but no such luck. The opening bid for the book set was $39.99 which I thought was reasonable for sets of the same books going for over $200 on Amazon. Oh well, I will try again with some of the games I have, the price will be lower and may get some bids.

Another Busy Week

We have sorted through all the books and games and have a lot to sell or donate. We have sorted most of the unsorted stuff and given it a home or tossed it in the trash. We can now get at most of the labeled storage boxes so we can weed out all the stuff in them. Better yet we can now get to the hand and power tools we’ll need to finish the patio. The sewing area is almost ready to receive the machines from the living/dining area in the house.

I’ve been checking out the prices of some of our books and games on eBay and I think I may try my hand at selling some things there. An old friend and army buddy of mine has had a lot of stuff on eBay and says he’ll give me some tips.

MH and our friends from TTofTX (Thousand Trails of Texas) keep trading e-mails about our work at the upcoming 6-State rally. They can’t seem to make-up their minds how many of our people they need early to set-up the parking stuff. Well I guess they have until September to get it settled.

The Shelve Are Up And Books Unpacked

We have finished putting up the shelves and put all our books in one place. They were on 3 different shelves and 10 boxes. We also sorted them for keep and for sale. The garage is look better but the patio is a mess.

We probably should do the games next; we have games we’ll never play again. I have a lot of puzzle and cerebral games and MH doesn’t want to work when she is relaxing and playing a game.

We went with Phyllis to her complexes pool Saturday and the water wasn’t as cold as I expected. We’ll probably go 3 or 4 times a week with her while we’re in town.

And I thought Last Week Was Busy

Well we had two choices this week, finish-up on the patio or work in the garage. We chose the patio but soon learned that to do most of that work we needed the stuff in the garage. So change in plans, we’ll work in the garage.

We finished the wallpaper and now will install the shelving. From there we can finish unpacking the boxes of project materials, books and games we packed to store when we were going to sell the house and full-time RV. The goal is to sort as we go to rid this place of clutter.

It's Been a Busy Week

We got back from the Gladewater, TX rally on Saturday the 16th and only got to rest on Sunday. Between doctor’s appointments, bridge, and a three day Embroidery class, we have not had a moment to spare. The next week looks a lighter, maybe we’ll get the “Stick and Brick” house cleaned-up.

Just before we left for Gladewater, David (MH’s Brother) brought us a carload of stuff he had been storing. It was the wooden doll furniture that their father was making. Now it’s up to us to decide what to do with it. There are partially assembled parts for a bunk bed, a 2 seat glider, a bench, and a swing, plus un-assembled pieces for many more of each item. I’ve considered trying to putting some of this stuff together, but I don’t know if my woodworking skills are up to it.

East Texas Rally

We arrived in Gladewater, TX yesterday for our T(exans)o(n)S(afari) rally which starts on the 13th. Carmen Mackey surprised us with a Lasagna and Salad meal last night after which we stayed to play train.

We Are Back Home From Lake Taxoma

We nearly drown at Lake Texoma this weekend. We arrived to a light drizzle which got harder and harder as we found a campsite and parked. It was raining so hard after we finished leveling and pulling the car in, we didn’t even plug into the electric until a lull in the storm after a few hours. It rained most of the weekend with the sun finally coming out Sunday afternoon. Lake Texoma rose 9’ while we were there.

We will stay home for a week then leave for Gladewater on Monday for our Texans on Safari rally.

Our First May Rally

Wednesday we leave for our first of two rallies this month. This one to Thousand Trails Lake Texoma. We will tell the club about our jobs at the 6-state rally this fall in Shawnee, OK. It should be interesting to see what is left at the lake, the way Thousand Trails is closing things down, there may not be much to do there.

The Two Rallies are Over

We’re back from Oklahoma where we had two short meetings with FMCA. The first was to plan the jobs our club would do during the 6-State rally in September. The second was to get materials to promote the rally to our clubs.

We had a great meeting and got done even sooner than the FMCA officers expected. The tour of Shawnee was interesting, the town has a rich history and is home to four Native American nations.

The weather was wild, we went from 26° one morning to running the AC the next afternoon. And if the wind stopped blowing for more than four hours total for the whole week, I’d be surprised.

We’ll be home now until the first of May when we get to tell the TTofTX club what jobs we have in the rally.

Almost Finished with the Back Porch, Time for a Road Trip

That was too much like work. We finally put the jalousie windows we bought around the turn of the century.

The bugs were starting to attack the rough cut cedar we had on the walls and the screens were looking like they needed help. So we got some Hardie Plank and replaced the walls and put in the new windows.
Now it’s time for a short road trip to Shawnee, OK to see what job our club gets to do at the 6-State rally in September. It’s only a short trip but it’s out of the house for a while.

Back to the Ole' Homestead

We had two great rallies and a visit to our new grand dog.

Now it's back to the old routine until we leave for the FMCA Planning Rally in April.

One Rally Down, One to Go

We finished our first rally for Thousand Trails of Texas at Columbus, TX and are taking a days rest before driving to the Woodlands for our Texans on Safari rally.

These TToTX rallies are going to be harder to plan in the future, they are closing all the restaurants at parks that weren't making a profit, which is most of them. Now instead of planning the meals on site, they will have to be catered, self-cooked, or traveled to. The Wagon-masters at this rally did an excellent job of planning and keeping the cost down.

Just Hangn' Out At The House

We've been home for the month of February visiting doctors, going to birthday parties, etc. on march 4th we leave for two RV rallies with our Clubs. The first one at Columbus, TX and the other at the Woodlands, TX. We will be back by the 15th of March.

Our East Coast Trip

Well, the North Carolina Outer Banks were fun. We were in Kill Devil Hills when they had their coldest day since 1965. and on Atlantic beach and got snowed on.

We got to visit the Wright Brothers National Historic Site. I had wanted to be there on the 100th anniversary of the historic flight, but after seeing the Ariel pictures of the event I'm glad I missed it. There were a lot of people there and getting around would have been very difficult. We also found an excellent seafood restaurant in Kitty Hawk that had once been a Coast Guard Rescue station. It was the weather reports from this station that persuaded the Wright Brothers that it would be good site to test their glider and airplane designs. It was also from this station's telegraph that the world learned of their successful first flights.

We also went Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island, the site of the "Lost Colony" and home to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World".

After a week in Kill Devil Hills we took to the road and traveled down the outer banks on North Carolina route 12. This took us through Hatteras and Ocracoke on two ferry boats.

At Atlantic Beach we visited with an old army pal and ate in 2 excellent and 1 pretty god seafood restaurant. This is where it snowed on us and we spent two days close to the timeshare because the entire area was closed because of the weather.

On the way home we stopped in Atlanta to visit with Mary Helen's Aunt and cousins.

We're Back on the Road

We left Sunday the 4th for a timeshare vacation on the East Coast. We drove through rain for first 4 days with the threat of freezing each morning. We stopped in Texarkana, Memphis, between Nashville and Knoxville, Near Winston-Salem, by Elisabeth City, NC.

We have reservations in Kitty Hawk and Atlantic Beach on the barrier islands of North Carolina.