Strawpineade Rum Drink

Here's a recipe for a home made, cool refreshing blender drink.

First, I made a can of frozen lemonade of 64 oz.  I split that off, leaving me 32 oz. of straight lemonade in the blender (which has a max of 80 oz) and 32 oz in reserve for the 2nd batch.

I filled the empty lemonade can with Bacardi's Pineapple Rum and put it into the blender.

Next, I put 5 rings of pineapples plus a smidge of pineapple juice.  (Why 5?  because I had 10 and saved the other 5 for the second batch).

Now, the measurements get a little on your own. I added some frozen strawberries and ice cubes to get up to my max fill line.

Blended that all together and wasn't happy with the samples, so I added half a can (6 oz) of Pineapple Soda for a little fizz.

Perfect.  Enjoy.

BBQ Chicken and Rice Enchiladas

No secret that Connie and I don't "do" hot, spicy foods.  Zero tolerance.  So, we pretty much bastardize every Tex-Mex recipe there is to make them Northern Ohio tolerable.  This is another one.

Preheat the oven to 400.

On the grill, I grilled two good sized boneless chicken breasts.  While I was doing that, I sautéed about half of an onion and some minced garlic in Canola oil in a large sautée pan on the oven top.  All the while, I was microwaving a bag of rice.

When the chicken was finished, I shredded it and added it to the onions/garlic.  Then added the rice.  Then I took some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (I think hickory and brown sugar) and liberally stirred it in to the mix.  I added about 2 Tbl of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky.  (There.  There's your heat.)

I only had the big burrito sized tortillas, so they had to do.  I sprayed the bottom of a square baking pan that the burrito sized tortillas would fit in.  Then I added some BBQ sauce.

After letting my rice/chicken/BBQ sauce simmer for awhile, I added it to the middle of the burritos along with some shredded CoJack cheese.  Folded them up tightly and placed them in the baking dish.  Whole thing made a total of four, with a little bit to pour over the top.

I poured BBQ sauce over the top, along with a healthy bit of shredded cheese.  Covered with foil, and baked for about 25 minutes.

Tear Down List

I see a lot of posts on Facebook wanting a tear down list.

Here's a link to our Word document that we update constantly.  It's personal.  Lots of things (pictures, etc.) that we have up that look "normal" that we have to remind ourselves to make sure we take down.

Hope it helps someone get started making their own list.

Be safe!

Medical Update 2018

Been a while since we have updated the medical information.  When last we left, we were dealing with back pain.  They did confirm that when the kyphoplasty was done, some cement dripped near the spinal nerve.  Doctor prescribed Gabapentin which has helped.

Fast forward to TX.  Dr. ordered a PET scan to check things out.  Unfortunately, it shows progression in the lungs.  Going to have to go back on the heavy chemo (taxatere).  😡

A brain MRI was also ordered.  Again, not good news.  New activity in the previous area with some new activity in additional places.  Meeting with radiation oncologist to go over options.

Not a candidate for radiation as I have had too many doses previously.  Dr. said they typically don't see a patient 3 times for this.

Radiation is a risk, surgery is a risk.  Waiting for more info to determine our next course of action.

Back to Texas -- Final Chapter

We left Shreveport dodging rain drops around 10a on Sunday with a short trip in mind.

About 45 minutes closer to New Caney, TX, I was feeling so good I wanted to go further.  Made a couple of phone calls, drove straight through Houston and ended up in Rockport, TX for the night.

Next morning, we ran over to Aransas Pass to check on the buggy.  It was fine!

It was a heartbreaking drive to and from.   Thought I was ready to see the destruction of Hurricane Harvey, but once you see it in living color, it's so different.

We had seen videos that people had posted on YouTube, but to smell it, touch it, see it live....it was just different.

I don't want to dwell on it, but it will keep coming up.  It's been two months since the Hurricane came ashore here in the Coastal Bend. Every day is another benchmark for someone, somewhere on their timeline to recovery.  It's heartbreaking.

Later Monday morning, we gathered up our things and headed on the Ferry to Port A.

Sloopy and Tangy out each window.  Can you tell the difference?

Got parked in the site at Pioneer RV Resort and began the process of making it our home till the Spring.

Happy Girls!

Back to Texas -- KY/TN/MS/LA leg

We left Caesar's Creek Thursday morning.  Kind of dreary and rainy.

Arrived at Elizabethtown Camping Center around 3p ET.  Park was OK, town attached to it was pretty neat.  Lots of shopping choices, restaurants, etc.  Even though it was an overnight stop, we'd come back here to do a little exploring.

Friday morning we left for one of a few familiar stops on this trip -- Two Rivers Campground in Nashville.  Started a theme question of "how many times have we been here?"  I'll get to that in a bit.

 Got there early enough on Friday to settle in then catch the shuttle down to Broadway.  Can't remember being down there on Friday night, but it was hopping.  Really couldn't bar hop a lot because most were full.  We did get dinner at Margaritaville, a few pops at Bailey's Sports Bar and Two Fiddles.  Like always, we had a great time, saw some good bands, and great people watching.

Took the girls out to a great dog park in Nashville, Two Rivers Dog Park.  It's huge, and a great place to exercise not only your dogs, but yourself.

Saturday evening, we went to the Embassy Suites in Cool Springs to watch the Buckeyes play Nebraska in the company of the Middle Tennessee Ohio State Alumni Club.  Great group of folks, food was good, outcome of the game solid.

 

 Sunday we left for another of our favorite spots:  Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park, in West Memphis, Arkansas.  This stop was designed for a relaxing time, and it was just that.  Did our laundry, some grocery shopping, caught up on work and watched many, many barges work the river.

Stayed 3 nights here and just relaxed.

Wednesday we were off to Vicksburg, MS and another familiar park, Ameristar Casino RV Park the first of two straight Casino Camping experiences. 

 

We started chatting about being to this park before, and indeed upon some research, this was our third time.  Got us to digging so that we could figure how many nights we've stayed where.  Started doing the legwork on that, and we're good back to 2013.  Going to work on 2011 and 2012 when I get the chance and publish it.

Looked for restaurants to go to as neither of us felt like cooking.  Ended up going to the 10 South Rooftop Bar and Grill, located on top of a bank building 10 stories above the Yazoo River.  What a view!  

Final stop on this leg was in Bossier City, LA.  Previously we stayed at the KOA, but this time we decided to try Diamond Jack's RV Park.

Had a little drama getting here.  Missed the turn and tried to get turned around in a neighborhood.  Bad idea.  Streets were tight, and fell off into ditches.  Balked at each of the corners until I got to the end of the street and had no choice.  Tried turning left, didn't like it.  Some of the neighbors came out to help guide me.  Tried turning right, and while I was keeping the truck out of the ditch, the rig started down -- like the jack touched the road.  Not good at all.  Got it backed up, straightened up and tried turning left again and this time we got it done.  Shook some things up in the rig, some of the cowling at the hitch that were broken from our very first unhitching broke, but otherwise, we could have been a lot worse off.

Decided to splurge and do the Casino's Seafood Buffet featuring Crab Legs.  I'll leave you with that.

Back to TX -- the Ohio Leg

We left Timber Ridge Campground Monday to begin our journey back to Texas.  Really enjoyed our summer there.  Had lots of "Davis time" this summer and are so appreciative our their generosity over the summer.  Will miss those smiling faces.

Drove down to Columbus and stayed a night at the Cross Creek Camping Resort.  Since we were there last, they instituted a "no pet fence" policy which sucked, especially for Tangy.  We were going to go the ignorance route and put it up any way, but with just a one night, we figured we'd fight that battle on another stay.

We went to the Winking Lizard Westerville to meet with our friends Craig and Sandy, Dave and Jean and were surprised by Connie's cousin Lisa and her friend Wendy.  Had a great time, even though the Indians (a theme) lost AND I forgot to take a picture of our table.  Great catching up, they've been such good friends.

Tuesday, we headed to the hub of the universe, Wilmington, OH.  Stayed in our normal spot at Caesar Creek (saw a lot of deer!), went in to visit Connie's Dad Oz and his wife Betty.  Surprised them with a visit from Bethany and Kingsley.  Went out for pizza at Generations Pizza before retiring back to the rig and K's first overnight "camping" experience.  All went great except it rained hard around 3a and the vent window didn't automatically close when we went to bed.

Wednesday, we got moving slowly, but ended up at Frisch's for brunch with Oz and Betty, then back to the rig before Bethany and Kingsley had to take off for home.  A great time.

We headed out late Wednesday afternoon to check out an RV park for our Ohio Heartland Rally next August.  Looked like it's going to be a winner, and I hope to finish up details with the managers today.

Finally, it was off to the Little River Cafe in Oregonia.  It's owned by a Barb and Todd Holmes.  Barb and I were in homerooms together since Junior High, and Todd and I lived in each other's back yards.  Was a nice place with a live band, fireplace (which we needed!), and good food/drinks.  Met with Rich and Kim, Randy and Shelley, and even Barb made time to come out and see us.  Again, great catching up and experiencing their place.  Got home to watch the Indians lose.  😩

Today, we leave Ohio for the last time in 2017 and will make our way to Elizabethtown for an overnight, a couple of nights in Nashville before three nights along the mighty Mississippi.