Some time in North Texas

Connie and I left Copano Bay RV Resort last Friday the 28th of March.  Our friend Karen had come down and she rode with up to San Antonio with us.  We stayed at the Stone Creek RV Park.

Friday night we saw the Alamo and walked the Riverwalk.  Always enjoyable, especially when its good and warm!

Saturday morning I took Karen to SAT for an early morning flight, then Connie and I went to the Valero Texas Open.

Got an itsy bitty bit of TV time behind Matt Kuchar on 16th green.  (That's me in the red hat!)

Texas State Capitol

Governor's Mansion

On Sunday, we rolled on to Austin, TX and stayed at Oak Forest River RV Park. We spent the day going to the State Capitol, the Governor's Mansion, Franklin's BBQ (it was closed), SoCo and 6th Street.  Austin's an incredibly different town.  They've passed a law making it illegal for stores to use throw away bags, regardless of paper or plastic.  Horrible for me.  Went to the store twice, forgot to take bags twice.  Ugh.

Our site at Oak Forest River

Wednesday, we made the rather uneventful trip to Santo, TX and Coffee Creek Resort for the North Texas Heartland Owner's Club rally.  Knew many of the people, met some more great owners.

Went out Wednesday night to the Natty Flat Smokehouse, that also had the largest rocking chair in Texas.

 Thursday, I went out with a couple of guys for some golf, then just hung around the rig.  Friday, the official opening day of the Rally, we went out to dinner at a Catfish Diner.

Saturday was the beginning of splitsville.  Opened the morning by helping cook bacon for the Rally's breakfast.  Around 10:30a, I took Connie to Dallas Love Field for her afternoon flight back to Ohio.  When I returned, we had a potluck dinner and I returned to the rig to watch the Final Four.

Our daughter, Bethany, was working at AT&T Stadium for the Final Four, and Sunday was her day off.  I drove back over to Arlington, and we had an enjoyable afternoon seeing some sights of Dallas (Texas Book Depository, downtown, etc.), then went to the NCAA's Fan Fest called "Bracket Town.".  Had lunch at a rather eclectic little diner, then headed back to the rig after dropping her back at the hotel.

Today (Monday) was getaway day from Santo and on to Sanger, TX and the Wagon Master RV Park. <link>  Pretty short ride, but I held off leaving to miss the traffic from the Texas Motor Speedway who had their race delayed.  Never touched the brakes the whole time.  Looked like there were PLENTY of good seats still available.

Was my first solo tear down, drive and set up.  Things went very well, and I felt very prepared.

Till next time!

Easter weekend...

Good Friday was a non treatment day.  Starting Monday, Connie will do daily brain radiation treatments (save Saturday and Sunday) through till a week from Tuesday.  We won't miss that daily ride into Corpus Christi.

Hope to get some clarity from those at the Cleveland Clinic this coming week about her treatments in Ohio.  That will help us make our return to Ohio plans a little more concrete.

She's been feeling well, being active, pretty voracious appetite and really not showing any of the side effects (other than some spotty hair loss from the Cyberknife).  Her chemo pills are two weeks on, one week off.  This weekend was pretty much "drug free."

Spent Friday night watching some hoops.  Went into Rockport Saturday to look at some of the shops, then came home to watch the Buckeyes drop out of the tournament at the hands of Wichita State.

Today we started our day with a special recipe for breakfast that Connie found in a magazine while doing treatments, watched a few hoops, then off to the Clubhouse for a great carry in Easter Dinner.

Most everyone will be heading out (if they haven't already) tomorrow, and we'll start back for treatments to Corpus.

An Amazing Weekend....

We had an amazing weekend.  Our daughter, Bethany, and son-in-law, James flew to Houston and drove down Thursday afternoon to Copano Bay RV Resort.  Connie had a radiation treatment at 8a on Thursday, then tired herself out helping me clean the rig.  She was up and going again by the time the kids got to town.

After a night of jabber and remembering how the sofa bed worked, we ran into Corpus again Friday morning for a brain radiation treatment and were back by 9a.  We did a spin with the kids around Rockport, then a late lunch at Moon Dogs.  The brisket nachos were outstanding, as were the shrimp nachos.  Came back home for a day of watching college basketball, and the Buckeyes winning their first round game, while we munched on snacks and Connie's beer dip.

Saturday, we headed out to Port Aransas for lunch at Virginia's and I introduced Bethany to munzee hunting.  The view at Virginia's was better than the food, but all in all a decent place.  Drove around the town, then drove the beach.  Made the circle into Corpus Christi, then ended up at Fajitaville for a cocktail.  Bethany had a Beerarita and we all enjoyed the atmosphere.  Had steaks at the rig for dinner and it was a pretty early evening while watching our brackets go up in flames.

A word about the rig.  It performed perfectly in our first weekend entertaining guests.  Hot water tank had plenty, air mattress was OK, and all in all we were all very happy.

Carmen and Sloopy helped Bethany and James with missing their dog.

Sunday, James rolled to Victoria to golf with one of his college roommates, while the rest of us watched the Buckeyes squeak one out against Iowa State.  Afterward, Connie and Bethany shopped the shops of Rockport for a few hours.  Pizza Hut cooked dinner as we watched the tournament deep into the night.

Connie was pretty much a fireball all weekend.  Not many times we had to slow down, she was able to have a couple of Landsharks here and again.  Made her very happy.


Monday was the day we dreaded, as Bethany and James headed back to Houston for their flights back to Ohio.  Hurts a little less knowing we'll see them again in a couple of months.

Monday afternoon, back to the grind of treatments.  Had tons of leftovers for meals.

This morning, Copano Bay RV Resort had an incredible breakfast prepared by one of the guests who cooks (or runs?) at a bed and breakfast.  Delish!  Treatment afterward and a meeting with the radiation oncologist who thinks things are going along very well.

Returning to the treatment trains

After a very enjoyable weekend of watching College Basketball, the Buckeyes win the Big Ten Tourney and a Monday of making sure everything is in place, we returned to the treatment train today.

This morning, we were in Corpus at 8a for a whole brain radiation treatment.  Used the same mask as the Cyber Knife, but a different more shot gun approach to the cancer that's in Connie's brain.  Whole treatment lasted about 20 minutes, then we consulted with Dr. Stewart for another 20 minutes.  There's concern about using Xeloda (chemo) to treat the body cancer at the same time as the radiation to treat the brain, but it's a risk we're OK with taking.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough one.  In at Corpus by 6:30a (talking about a 5:15a alarm!) for the installation of the mediport procedure, a 10:00a Herceptin treatment and a 2:45p whole brain radiation procedure.  I'll drop Connie off, take the girls to Bruno's for some daycare and kill the day here and there in Corpus working, walking the mall or deploying Munzees.  We'll try to get a lunch in at the Sirloin Stockade again between the Herceptin and the radiation.  We'll be dragging by evening (including Carmen and Sloopy).

The reward will be Thursday when our daughter (Bethany) and son in law (James) fly in from Cleveland after another 8a radiation treatment.

Got a big weekend planned if Connie's up to it.

Another day we didn't make it to Oyster Fest...

Another day, another day we didn't make it to the Oyster Fest.  Guess we'll have to see it next year.

Played it smart on springing forward, went to bed last night on "tomorrow's time" and got up about the normal time.

Had some impossibly easy bacon pie for breakfast.  Took a little long to cook, but boy was it worth it.

Broke a string last night in our day/night shades (we're getting good at replacing them, but really?  This is our third one breaking!), and spent the rest of the morning replacing it.

After watching the Buckeyes beat the Illini, we headed to the clubhouse here at the park for an ice cream social.  Good ice cream, but better conversation with some of the others in the park.

Came back to set up the outside TV.   Watched the end of the golf tournament and the Wolverines gag away a Big Ten co-title for Ohio State while our friends Fred and Vickie came to town with their grand daughter, Maddison.  You can see how we met Fred and Vickie here.  Amazing the friendship that we've developed over a little more than a year.

Kids are the same way.  As soon as they pulled in, Maddison met the little 9 year old (Emma) on the other side of us and off they went.

We shared our grill and ate dinner at our place, then enjoyed each other's company till it "was time".

Connie took it easy today.  A good nap for around an hour and some sunshine time kept her happy.  Not many aches and pains, just had some ups and downs as far as energy throughout.  No more appointments till we meet the cardiologist on Tuesday.

Connie was always good at tests.....

Saturday was pretty much spent getting control of things.  Steroids and anti seizure meds were IV'd in to stabilize things as much as they could.

I got the girls around 8a from the Salty Dog, and headed out to the hospital around noon.

We both met with Dr. Gleason who reaffirmed his strategy of the Cyber Knife and Connie met with Dr. Stewart who ran the beast.  We definitely needed to work on the large mass first (which was on the cerebellum), then deal with the other spots second.  The rest of the body issues (below the neck) were secondary at this point.

Sunday was a waste of a day.  Nobody in, no tests, just a day to sit around and watch network TV in standard def on a 19" TV.  Ugh.  We did get to watch the Buckeyes together beat Michigan State.  But, the food was great (shaking my head "no").

Monday was a big test day.  3 tests she’s got to undergo today:  Biopsy (to determine that it is breast cancer which actually would be good news, and not some other form of cancer which actually would be very bad news); mammogram (she was due to have this done last Friday, but once the brain stuff came out got put on back burner.  This is more of a current baseline for them); and some sort of heart test to make sure her ticker can handle chemo.
All the tests were finished, we just had to wait on the results to get her released as the Cyber Knife had to be done as an out patient procedure.

Tuesday would be either release day or wait another day.

Warming up.......

Starting to be more of Chamber of Commerce weather here in the Coastal Bend.  Was nice enough yesterday to watch the entire Falcons vs. 49ers game outside yesterday.  Sports (and football in particular) is just better when you watch it outside.

Thinking hard about a beach day this week, as we might get into the 80's by the end of the week.

Saturday night, another carry in and fireside dinner over at Mike and Baxter's here at Sea Breeze RV Park.  Ed and Loretta cooked up sausage plus liver & onions to perfection.  Smoky fire, though.  All clothes in the wash, plus had to wash the smoke smell out of our hair Sunday.  Bob was late to the dance watching the Buckeyes lose to Sparty.  <sigh>

Baxter is a great dog.  Shitzu by breed, but he's got a superb personality.  Here's a picture of him "getting walked".  Rules the roost.  Our girls treat him as a non dog.  His temperament is sensational for the RV lifestyle.

Put the finishing touches on our travels for the summer.  Once we leave the Coastal Bend, we'll be spending a month in Dallas, June in Denver and July in Salt Lake before taking on California from Sacramento to San Diego.  Buckeyes at Cal is the feature event, but looks like we'll be able to do some day games with the A's and the Giants plus Stanford, USC and UCLA home football games.  Stoked.  Once the NFL schedules come out, Chargers, Raiders and Niners might enter the mix.

Another trip around the sun......

Today's ends Bob's 51st trip around the sun.  ALWAYS get the "you're so young" phrase whenever we're out amongst snow birds and full timers.  If we don't get that phrase, there's "the look" wondering "OK, how are they doing this?"  Funny.

Photo from Michael & Kelly Barnett, http://http://rvthereyetchronicles.com/

Spent a great morning Monday meeting with the Heartland Owners Group of the Coastal Bend.  Great group of folks.  Found out two of them, Michael & Kelly Barnett will be traveling to the Sweetheart Rally in Kerrville, TX next February.  Will be nice to see familiar faces there.

We seldom eat out on our own, but this group eats out twice a week.  The Bakery Cafe was the site Monday.  Connie's biscuits and gravy were very good, Bob's ham and cheese omelet was huge.  Great brunch. 

Speaking of familiar, we're both Mac people.  Bob's had a Mac since they came out in 1983.  We finally made the decision to abandon our AppleWorks and upgrade our system to the new OSX.  We both hate, I mean HATE, software changes.  Spent the last few days migrating everything over to Microsoft Word and Excel, checking on all the software that will have to be updated to keep up with the new OSX.  <sigh>  Once we get that going, the tax season will be upon us.

While all this is going on, the business has been incredibly busy!  (Thank you!)  New Disney and cruise bookings have tested out the new Word/Excel system quite nicely (except for the time something happened and all the booking numbers got assigned to the wrong clients.)  Will be dropping the hammer today or tomorrow and downloading the new operating system. 

Sunday reminded us of one of those days we fondly remember back in Ohio.  Mid to late February and all of a sudden a mid 50's day pops out of nowhere and EVERYONE is outside washing cars, walking, etc.  After the (for here) miserable days last week, we saw more people in the park out than since we arrived.  Now, we're looking at thunderstorms for a few days, a few nice days, then back to the 50's to start our rise again.

Last night ended another College Football season.  It all goes too fast (just like Alabama's players vs. the Domers).  We'll humor ourselves with college basketball, pro golf, then the new baseball season.  But it's just a ruse because we're waiting for next August to get here.

From Memphis to Tallahasse....

Sunday was getaway day for us.  We really enjoyed Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park.  Electric and laundry were included, making it a great value for a month stay.  We'll miss our walks to the river and just there and watch barges go by.

Sunday, we left at our typical 10:30a and was a pretty uneventful ride to a suburb of Birmingham, AL (Bessemer) where we stayed at an Elks Lodge.  Road was surprisingly good, spare a few miles that looked like they were the last to be repaved.  When we entered B'ham, we noticed some storm damage from the April 2011 tornado that really raked some damage on this area.  Parking at the lodge was one of our first challenges with the new rig.

Monday morning, we took off with the girls to Tuscaloosa to see the home of the Crimson Tide.  Again, before reaching campus, we saw the devastation that they really haven't recovered from with that awful storm.  Very hurricane-ish the way there was just a swath of nothing where the storm touched down.

Bryant-Denny stadium was nice.  They've really done some nice work on the walk up with statues of all the coaches who have won national championships, plus brick work that includes the names of all the players on those teams.  Lots of reminders of Paul "Bear" Bryant

We took a quick run out to see the Sewell-Thomas baseball stadium and Coleman Coliseum.  Both were impressive, especially the basketball arena.  From the outside looks like a barn, but once inside they've done a great job with their facilities and looks like a wonderful place to watch a game.

After some work upon returning to Bessemer Elks Lodge, we went out to dinner with our old friend Dick Turner and his new wife Cathy at the Southern Legacy BBQ in Hoover, AL.  The food was fabulous, half price beers and appetizers through 7p.  We had some BBQ nachos that were splendid.

Catching up with our old friend was a treat.  It had probably been around 15 years since we've seen Dick.  We spent the night laughing, catching up on everyone we knew, our families, their new life in Birmingham and our business and RV'ing lifestyle.

Tuesday was an easy getaway day.  We came upon a wreck in Birmingham just after it happened, and was about a 45-50 delay getting out of town, so that up and going at 8a was wasted.  It's really one of the first long delays we've had which is pleasantly surprising.

We're in at the Tallahassee Elks, which has really secluded, wooded sites.  Not sure what tomorrow will bring, which is as it should be!

Rock Chalk Jayhwak

Today, we took the afternoon off and headed to Lawrence, Kansas home of the Kansas Jayhawks.  It's our 8th of the ten Big XII campuses to visit (only have Oklahoma State and Iowa State on the list).


Town was about the size we figured, but seemed much older in the residential area.  The campus was very hilly, and very understated.  Not many tall buildings, pretty spread out.

Our first stop was Memorial Stadium.  The stadium is dedicated to the University of Kansas students who fought and died in World War I.  It opened in 1921 and you can still tell the original bowl shell that's been added to over the years with the pressbox and extensions of the bowls in the 60's.  Other than the new field turf and new jumbotron, she really shows her age.  We're figuring it would be a tough sell for a recruit seeing those facilities.  


Not much history to KU Football, especially recently.  The names of Gayle Sayers (the "Kansas Comet"), John Riggins, and John Hadl (later of AFL's San Diego Chargers) helped a little.  But looking through the 2011 Media Guide, the history pickings are rather thin.


Of course, that isn't what makes you think of KU.  That would be basketball, and the legendary Phogg Allen Fieldhouse.  Got lucky to get in.  Was going to hold the door for a woman entering and it was locked.  "Don't worry, I have a code" and in we went with our own personal tour guide!  "I love showing this place off!"  

She showed us an alumni donor section that was walled off during games, and also had a private viewing area into the practice facility.  Would hope that the big buck alumni have something, because inside the area there's nothing upscale at all.  No suites, no cushy seats, naughta.  Just some old time chairs at midcourt on both sides and bleachers.  


We got kicked off the floor before I got any pictures, but from the first level it was steaming hot in there.  Empty and with just work lights on.  Can't imagine the heat with 17,000 and TV lights in there.  Have to think it's very Fenway, Wrigley-ish that we're not going to change this place.  Ever.


All that being said, it was wonderful to see this legendary place.  Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning, Paul Pierce, the list of great ballers to play here is long.  The Booth Family Hall of Athletics is fantastic.  They have a great housing of memorabilia, and are not afraid to boast of their 5 National Championships.  Would love to put it on the list of places to see a basketball game here, but just seeing it empty was fantastic.