Bonus Days 11 - 16 (December 23 - 28)

Took a little time off writing.  Christmas came and went.

Connie was able to get out to Pioneer's Christmas Dinner.  Actually ate quite a bit for her.

We took a walk around the park with her in her wheelchair, which we'd like to make more of a habit.  We took a drive to the beach, which was short lived, but she enjoyed it.

The day after Christmas, we had a visit from her nurse.  She made it to the Parrotheads of Port Aransas 4th Thursday Happy Hour after visiting with Dan Sullivan and friends on the beach.  Dan was celebrating his 50th birthday.

Friday, the 27th, we made the decision to cancel our cruise in January.  It was just going to be too much for the both of us, and her time in the room and in bed was going to be greater than the time out of there.

After a visit by the nurse's aide to get her showered up, she made it to Moby Dick's for a performance by The Detentions.  Didn't eat much, but had two beers.  Afterward, she was pretty whipped.

The Buckeyes played in their semi final game against Clemson on Saturday.  She was in bed most of the day, tried to rally when some friends came over, but went to bed around kickoff.

She's beginning to know her limitations.  When she doesn't feel "it", she taps out and goes to bed.  She tries to dress herself, and is successful most of the time.  She's getting worse on the stairs.  That's probably going to be our immediate future.

Week 4 CFB Viewing Schedule

I completely forgot to post week 3.  For those of you hanging there, waiting for me to publish it, I apologize.

Thursday:

Houston at Tulane 7p  CT ESPN

Friday:

Main Game: 
 Utah at USC 8p CT FS1

Commercial Game: 
Air Force at Boise St.  8p CT ESPN2

Saturday:

Noon slot
Main game:
Michigan at Wisconsin 11a CT FOX

Commercial Games: 
MSU at Northwestern 11a ABC
Tennessee at Florida 11a ESPN

3:30p slot
Main game:
Miami (OH) at Ohio State 2:30p BTN

Commercial games:
Auburn at A&M 2:30p CBS
UK at Mississippi State 3:00p SECN

7:30p slot
Main game:
ND at UGA 7:00p CBS

Commercial Games
Ok. State at Texas 6:30p ABC
Oregon at Stanford 6:00p ESPN

In Bed Game:
UCLA at Wazzou 9:30p ESPN

Here's my College Football Viewing schedule

Even though we're on the road, we still have a "no travel" on College Football Saturdays.

 

Thursday:

No games

Friday:

Main game:  None

Commercial Games:  Wake at Rice 8p CBSSN / Marshall at Boise St 9p ESPN2

Saturday:

Noon slot:

Main game:  UC at Ohio State 12p ABC

Commercial Games:  WVU at Mizzou 12p ESPN2 / Syracuse at Maryland 12p ESPN

3:30p ET slot:

Main game:  A&M at Clemson 3:30p ABC

Commercial Games:  Nebraska at Colorado 3:30p FOX / So Miss at Miss. State 3:30p  ESPN News

7:30p ET slot:

Main game:  LSU at Texas 7:30p ABC

Commercial Games:  BYU at Tennessee 7p ESPN / Miami at UNC 8p ACCN

In bed game:

Stanford at USC 10:30p ESPN

A reminder of some rules (or guidelines):

1.  I will have a Thursday and Friday night schedule, along with a noon, 3:30 and 7:30 (ET) Saturday slot, along with my game for the bedroom TV to put me nighty night.
2. As an alumni of The Ohio State, the Buckeyes will always be the main game whenever they play
3. The "commercial games" will be who I'm flipping to in the breaks of the Main game.

Ohio State game, bye to our summer home, and on the road again

Spent Saturday at the rig watching Ohio State play with the Davis family.  It's almost become our end of the season tradition.

Smoked some bacon wrapped stuffed chicken thighs.  Men liked them, women not so much.  They were thick.  Was really excited about making them, was equally disappointed in them.

Friday was Connie's last chemo treatment in Ohio.  Had originally planned on leaving Timber Ridge Monday, but pushed it backed to Tuesday to give her an extra day recovery.

Did most of the seasonal things all last week, then packed Sunday.  Today (Monday) she was in great spirits and said "let's go today", so I finished everything up this morning and got ready to leave by early afternoon.  Will give her a good night sleep, then all day tomorrow to spend time with her Dad.

Always tough saying goodbye to folks, especially "The Sisters".  They've been such wonderful friends and we'll miss them.

Got into Caesar Creek around 7p.  Didn't have a reservation, so we took a "walk up" site.  No biggie AND we saved the reservation fee Reserve America charges.

The new steps and back up camera all worked great.  Also had a bonus a few weeks ago.  Camper at Timber Ridge put out a bunch of "free to good home" stuff.  Had been needing to replace my leveling blocks and he had a whole set of them.  Grabbed those babies up and tried them out today.  Perfect!

College Football begins! Here's my viewing schedule

 By noon (or thereabouts) every Thursday, I'll publish my College Football viewing schedule.

Some rules (or guidelines):

1.  I will have a Thursday and Friday night schedule, along with a noon, 3:30 and 7:30 (ET) Saturday slot, along with my game for the bedroom TV to put me nighty night.
2. As an alumni of The Ohio State, the Buckeyes will always be the main game whenever they play
3. The "commercial games" will be who I'm flipping to in the breaks of the Main game.

Let the season begin!
Thursday:

Main Game:  UCLA at UC 7p ET ESPN

Commercial Games:  GT at Clemson 8p ET ACCN / SD State at Minny 9:00p ET FS1

In bed game:  Utah at BYU 10:15 ET ESPN

Friday:

Main Game:  Wisconsin at USF 7p ET ESPN

Commercial Game:  Tulsa at MSU 7p ET ESPN / Purdue at Nevada 9:30p ET CBSSN

In bed game:  CSU at Buffs 10p ET ESPN

Saturday:

Noon slot

Main Game:  FAU at OSU 12p ET Fox

Commercial Games:  Ole Miss at Memphis 12p ET ABC / Toledo at UK 12p ET SECN

3:30 slot

Main game:  NW at Stanford 4p ET Fox

Commercial Games:  SC at UNC 3:30p ESPN / Va Tech at BC 4p ET ACCN

7:30p slot

Main game:  Oregon vs. Auburn 7:30p ABC

Commercial Games:  UVA at Pitt 7:30p ACCN / MTSU at UM 7:30p BTN

In bed game:  Fresno at USC 10:30p ESPN

RIP Dave Swindler

My Junior and Senior year in HS, this guy gave me trombone lessons in my hometown. Began making me believe after HS, I could make the OSU Marching Band even though I played football my JR and SR years. Took the time to drive me to C’bus for these new things called “summer sessions” on campus. Was the beginning of the best experience of my life, one for which I’m forever indebted to him. RIP, Dave.

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.

Growing Older But Not Up

Like most of us who full time RV, we meet friends along the way and really enjoy each other's company.  Thanks to Facebook, email and the like, we're now able to keep in touch even though we haven't actually "seen" each other in awhile.  Such is the case with Jim and Susan Lovay.  Married for 43 years, they're who Connie and I want to be when we grow up.  😉  Like Jimmy says, they're "growing older but not up."

We met at Pioneer RV Resort in Port Aransas, TX very haphazardly.  I noticed a Sparty "S" on the back of his jeep while walking our girls one day, mentioned something about their big game happening that day, and struck up a conversation about our Big Ten roots.  Turns out he's not a Spartan fan, he's an alumni.  Like I've told many people who call me an Ohio State "fan", there's a big difference.

Anyhoo, it just turned out to be one of the greatest wins in MSU history as Sparty picked up a mishandled punt and took it to the house for a game winning score.  I'm a Buckeye alum, but I'll root for anyone playing U of M.  Watched the video again.  Sean McDonough's call and the look on that Wolverine fan's face are both priceless.

Truth be told, I watched the whole game, gave up on Sparty, came back out and couldn't figure out why they were showing MSU players in the end zone celebrating.  I look down at Lovay's (they watch games outside like us), and they're all up celebrating.  A friendship was born.

It was a magical season for MSU as they beat OSU on the last play of the season (one of Jim's happier moments as we watched it together at Sting-Ray's) before getting flogged by Alabama in the playoffs.

They were like us, arrived at Pioneer for October, got November free then went to their winter destination (South Padre KOA).  We saw each other again the following April on their way back to the UP in Michigan, and that was the last time we saw them.  Until two days ago.

We were fortunate that the spot right across the road was available.

Jim and Susan would love to full time, but they're trying to sell their house in Manistique, MI which hasn't happened yet. We hope someone steps up and buys it from them.  Here's the link, contact their realtor soon! They were gracious enough to include us in their summer plans as they celebrated Canada Day, went to Niagara Falls, then looped around to our park.  

The girls just love Susan.  We tried (and failed miserably) to bring their new puppy Lacey, into the fence, but that went awful. 

The weather kind of cooperated for the couple of days they were here.  Was muggier than hell, but the rain stayed away enough for us to enjoy ourselves, especially at our favorite watering hole along the Vermilion River, Quaker Steak & Lube.

After coffee in the morning (Sloopy did what Sloopy does to Susan), we mapped out our day.

We went into Cleveland where we first went to First Energy Stadium home of the Browns, and where are daughter works.  She was nice enough to show us around.  Forgot to take pictures.  My bad.  Then, we went off the East Flats.  Only disappointing thing of the visit was the Rooftop Bar at Margaritaville Cleveland was closed because "it could rain".  

We moved down the river to Coastal Taco and enjoyed some appetizers, cold beverages and the view of the river which Jim reminded us maybe a dozen times that had once caught on fire.  Again, couldn't sit outside, but we were in the first level under cover.

 We decided to have a late lunch at one of our favorite places to eat, the Flat Iron Cafe.  It did not disappoint.  

Jim and Susan went old school and had a Stroh's.

They left this morning (after we had coffee together and Lacey explored the neighboring field).  Connie and I wish them safe travels, a buyer for their house, and that we see each other again soon.

Sugar Bowl, Bethany Visits, and it was cold.....

Had a couple of spectacular weeks following the Buckeyes to a National Championship.

It started on New Year's Eve as we drove to Baton Rogue, stopping to pick up our daughter in Houston at the airport.  Not conditioned for those long drives any more, it doesn't seem.

New Year's Day we drove into New Orleans.  Our first stop was at the Mid City Yacht Club, the official bar of the OSU Alumni from New Orleans, the Cajun Buckeyes.  Was a real throw back bar, in a neighborhood, surrounded by row houses.  Had a great time there.  Met Buck-I-Guy and Archie Griffin, had a few beers then headed downtown towards the Super Dome.

Parked in our spot a few blocks away from the Super Dome and hopped on local transit to the French Quarter.  Stopped for lunch at Crescent City Brewhouse.  Nice place, filled with Buckeyes and Bammers alike.

Next was on towards Manning's where ESPN had been broadcasting.  Got there just as they were striking the set.  <sigh>  Was still a good place to stop, rest, have a few beverages and watch some football.

Continued our walk to the SuperDome where there was a Fan Jam going on outside the stadium.  Met up with an old friend college, a Bama fan we had met on our cruise to Hawaii in 2011, my cousin from Orlando and our friends from Bellevue, who's brother I went to school with.  Was a really fun atmosphere, got super psyched for the game.

We got into the SuperDome in plenty of time to see all of pre game.  We didn't have an usher for our seat, we had sherpas.  They were up there, but still a great view of the game.  Needless to say, it was the desired outcome.

Drove back with Bethany to Rockport the next day, and spent the next two days recovering from the 3 day blitz.  By Monday, we had decided the price of tickets was going to be too high, the weather in Dallas was going to be too cold, and we bailed on taking the rig to Arlington opting instead fly Bethany back from Corpus Christi.

Spent the next week indoors most of the time.  Temp highs in the 40's will do that when you're in an RV.

Had a great tailgate party with the Porter's for the National Championship game, but that afternoon our furnace didn't fire.  Turns out the circuit board was bad.  Would be till Friday until we got the part, so I got a little portable heater.  As the temps didn't clear 55 for a week, it was cold in the rig.

Again, the National Championship game had a desired result.

Started a Euchre Night here at the park on Tuesdays, and we think its going to roll.  Played twice a week at Pioneer RV Resort in the fall and really wanted to keep playing.

Finally going to get to play golf this Monday as the temps are going back to their normal mid 60's for this time of year.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to read our doings.  Till the next time......

December and The Holidays

We've been at Copano Bay RV Resort since December 20th.  Had a Happy Hour most afternoons with our friends here.

Connie has had two treatments since our last blog.  She seems to be tolerating them very well.  Her oncologist sees most of the cancer being stable and not worthy of being too aggressive, so that's what we've done.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas.  We had a snacks and carols on Christmas Eve, then an afternoon potluck Christmas dinner here at the park.  All very good food, fun to be a part of.

Christmas Day we had a FaceTime conversation with our daughter, Bethany, and her husband, James (and dogs).  With the announcement that she's expecting in June, we'll probably be doing a lot more of this in the coming months and years.

We took our Christmas decorations down yesterday, the day after Christmas which is earlier than either of us can remember..  Its amazing how much space we donate to our Christmas decorations, but its something both of us enjoy.

Weather has been terrific (until today where its rainy and in the 40's) with the highs in the 60's-70's and the lows in the 50's-60's.  Going to be a bit of a roller coaster for the next couple of weeks.

We'll be following the Buckeyes to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.  Meeting our daughter at the airport in Houston, then on to Baton Rouge for New Year's Eve, then NOLA for New Year's Day and the game vs. Alabama.  Shortly after we return (with Bethany) to Rockport, we'll head back with her to Dallas where she's working the National Championship game (and hopefully to continue to follow the Buckeyes!)

Recap of a few days on the road...

We left Lake Cumberland on Wednesday around 9:30a and arrived at the Chattanooga Holiday Trav-L-Park.  Hadn't been to Chattanooga for probably 15 years.

Thursday, we went up Lookout Mountain just to see the view, which was awesome.  The drive up and the drive down were horrifying.  Hate that kind of driving (two lane road, twisty, straight up or straight down).  Ugh.  Saw two Class A motorhomes and could only imagine the drive.  Yikes.

We looked for a place to have a cocktail with a view and found the Boathouse Chattanooga which overlooked the Tennessee River.  Not much boat traffic, but the crewing teams were working out which was cool.

Decided while we were at the Boathouse to bite the bullet and put new tires on the truck, so we did that.  Why can't those guys tell time?  Said it would be "an hour, maybe an hour and a half".  We got there at 4:30p, left there at 6:50p.  Had a couple of beers across the street at a little neighborhood bar.  Had to leave once the locals got there, they were all smokers.  In Tennessee, if you make the place 21 and over, you can dictate the smoking laws.

Friday, we made the short run to Stone Mountain Family Park Campground.  Not our candy bar of a campground.  Total tree shade.  The sites were OK, but getting into them was a challenge (and one that I was up for).  After two aborts, we got the big spud in there.  Another thing, when it rained EVERYTHING was mud (no sunlight, no grass).  Liked its location, wasn't crazy about the sites.

Saturday, we went to the Yellow Daisy Festival.  Fantastic.  Over 400 craft vendors, but the ONE thing we were looking for (a flag holder with a light on top), nobody had.  Talked to a guy on Monday before we left (the campground was pretty much filled with vendors rig's) and he said he'd been doing this festival for 20 years and this one was about 2/3 of what it had been in the past.  Rained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday made it a bad one.  We were pretty wide eyed, but we went there on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.


Saturday night, we went to the Hudson Grille in Shady Springs to party with the Ohio State Alumni Club of Atlanta.  Great folks.  Shared a table with a Buckeye Alum and his girlfriend who was from Atlanta.  We had a great time, even though game didn't end up as we would have hoped.

Sunday was a good recovery day.  Sunday night, we went out with one of Connie's Wilmington HS friends that she hadn't seen for almost 30 years.  Ate at a place called Summit's Wayside Tavern and enjoyed the company of Nancy, Craig and Evan.  Food was good, company was terrific catching up on old friends and news from the Wil City.


Today (Monday) we made the short drive to Columbus, GA (actually Midland) and Lake Pines RV Campground.  Nice park, much more our style.  We can hear the shooting from the range at Camp Benning.  Check in guy said there might be artillery fire, but that didn't happen.  Nor did any paratroopers (that we could see from our site) which usually practice on Mondays.  Oh well.