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.

The week in review

Last week was a "good" week.

Met with our friends, the Greens, in Berea at the Cornerstone Brewery for some beverages and dinner.  (Note to self:  Don said the chicken strips are like Arby's).  Pulled pork was good, Connie said the fried green beans were good.

The weekend at the park was pretty laid back.  I did introduce a new beverage, a Pineapple-Lime Tequila Chiller.  Was really good.

Sunday, it was wakey wakey for French Toast and Bakey as the Davis family came out on their way to spending time at Ohio's Largest Indoor Water Park, Kalahari in Sandusky.

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.

Some closure in Amish country

Connie had her PT session on Thursday, which meant she was a) going to be tired and sore and b) she was going to score a lunch out of the deal.  We need shoes for our upcoming cruise.  Me because mine got ruined last January in the couple trips back to Ohio.  Connie because, well, they're shoes.  Me:  "hey, there's a place that has Buy One, Get Half Off 2nd pair shoes".  We go there.  Result?  She walks out with two pairs of shoes, I have none.

We went to lunch at Brown Bag Burgers, which we'd always passed and never gone in.  Not really a lunch type of place, was more for 4p drinks followed by some gourmet burgers.  Connie said the wings were good, my chicken breast was very good.

Made a 2p appointment with the local guy from Edward Jones, so in the interim I could go somewhere and buy some shoes.  The small amount we were going to be investing wasn't really enough for him to mess with and he was a super nice guy, but he did give us a good idea about CD laddering.

Last Friday was a day I was dreading, and a day I was looking forward to in equal parts.  6 months had elapsed since my mother passed away, and it was time to close her trust.  The part I dreaded was dealing with FC Bank for hopefully the final time.  Man, I had nothing but problems with them.  It was my Mom's local bank, the only one in her little town, and just a pain.  I looked at their locator map and saw that Shiloh, Ohio was the closest branch to me.  I was looking forward to it because my time as executor was about to be over.

I get up Friday morning and took the hour drive through Amish country.  Passed a couple of buggies. GPS said I was there, but I was at an Amish market.  Yep, sure enough, FC Bank had an office in there.  Girl who closed out the account couldn't have been nicer, AND I got to score some Amish cheese and some Amish butter.  Bonus.

Then, I had to drive to the nearest PNC Bank on my way home which was in Norwalk.  Another great run through farm country.  Amazingly, there were no detours, no construction along my route.  I'm thinking the Amish buggies don't tear up the roads too much.

Get home and start looking over CD rates.  Best rates are at the First Internet Bank of Indiana.  (It had kind of a cult name.  Kind of like all those dodges to get religious breaks, like the First Internet Church of God.)  But, after some research and phone calls, we decided to go that way.  Better than the 0.1% APY PNC bank offers in my savings account.

Sunday, I smoked a pork butt.  Been awhile, and never in this smoker.  (Not one of Connie's favorites, but Bethany loves pulled pork).  You can follow it along here.  Result was one of my better efforts.  The process was awful.

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......

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.

Sanger to Mount Pleasant

I had a great time in Sanger, TX at the Wagon Master RV Park.  Was a little bothered when I arrived and none of my non protected outlets were working.  Turns out there was something wrong in the pedestal that the park couldn't fix on their own with the 50 amp outlets, so I ran on 30 amps for the week.  Not a biggie.

Tuesday was another father/daughter day as Bethany had the day off so I went into Arlington to pick up her and a co-worker and we were off to Fort Worth.  Connie and I had been there before, so had some local knowledge.  Bethany was like "Finally!  I've been here almost a week and THIS is what I was expecting!" as we went to the Stockyards.  Had to stop at the Stockyards Hotel and have a Buffalo Butt Beer <link> while Bethany and Matt (or maybe it was Dan?) sat in saddles at the bar.

We stayed for the 4p cattle drive which I had a movie of, but something happened that I can't view it now.  <sigh>.

After the Stockyards, we headed down to Sundance Square and Riscky's BBQ which was fantastic eats.  Amazingly, it was started by two immigrants.  If you like good BBQ at a good price ($9.99 AUCE ribs???) and you're in Fort Worth, have to give it a big thumbs up.

Wednesday & Thursday were "work nights" as I was happy to go to Miguelito's to have dinner and a beverage with some cruise clients.  All great folks, and we certainly appreciate their business.  Connie and I used to do a "Client Appreciation Tour" every summer as we tried to figure out whether this full time RV'ing and keeping a business going was able to work.  This really brought me back to those good days.

After my Thursday night dinner (which was pretty early), I came back to the rig to share my last evening in Sanger with the two best card players in Texas (just ask them....), Fred and Vickie.  Played, drank and giggled through about 6 games of 3 handed hearts.  Fred killed us, both in the game and with his remarks.

Got away early (for me) Friday morning and put about 150 miles behind me.  Planned stop here in Mt. Pleasant, Texas at the Ramblin Fever RV Park.  Instantly got in trouble as I put up the dog pen for the girls and was told by "the guy" that I couldn't do that.  Didn't matter that it wasn't in the rules, he said.  So I took it down.  Just as I'm finishing setting up, the owner comes by and says "Mr. Sams (sic), I don't care if you put up your little dog pen."  So I put it up again.  That was fun in 80 degree heat.

I'm here till Monday, when we move again.  Thanks for visiting!

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!