Hello Tom and Sam

Reader Tom has mention that I have not blogged.  He said he misses my blog.  Thanks Tom.  I miss writing it.  I believe I will try to do better.  One of the things that set me back was being able to load pictures.  I like blogs with pictures.

Now that Craig and I are settling in one place for a few months I should post.

Both of these are lemons.  The lemon on the left is a ponderosa lemon from a neighbors tree, the little guy is from our lemon tree.  Guess it is true, things are bigger in Texas.

Well, will post this and see if it all works.  Maybe I can get back in the business of blogging.

Back in South Texas

Out of the house in Louisiana.  Finally.  Craig left Oct 22 and drove to South Texas, he has doctor appointments.  I stayed till Nov 15, loaded the CRV to the top (included the two dogs) and drove 14 hours.  Got lost several times.  Somehow I did not have a GPS in the car. 

Arrived in the park, Craig has done a great job setting our winter home up.  Good for him.  But I have had he flu for the last 2 weeks.  But better now.  Will start having some fun.

Last evening we went to the Hidalgo City lights with Larry and Marlene.  Great people great time.  Coming to this park again this winter is the right thing to do.  We have a great time.

Should leave here in April for a trip out west.  Hopefully a Hurriance will not end our trip again.

Post Huricane Issac

Wow, I have lived around these storms all my life and have never had all this damage and work.  We lost Craig's car and my Class B van. When they towed the Van off I cried.  Over a vehicle, can you believe.

The Famous Chief and I had some wonderful travels in that thing. 

Everything was drowned.  The lawn mowers, moped, 4 wheeler, air compressor, all the power tools, vacuum cleaner, camping equipment and the list goes on.   Everything in the fridge and freezers.  All the walls are full of mold and have to be washed down.  The water pump is not working and the AC's will need work.

Even with all of this, we are far better off then some of our neighbors.

We could not even get to the house for 6 days.  Not even by boat.  The LAW said if we put our boats in the water or tired to pass them, they would take away the boat and us.

Of course, when the storm hit I did not even blink an eye.  We where in Cody, WY having a grand time.  After all this storm was only a tropical storm.  A class1 at the last minute.  Not sure why all this water happened.  I think some of the protection for the big city of New Orleans actually backed the water up and flooded us.  We had water where we NEVER had water before.

We will clean, work with FEMA and our car insurance until the end of Oct.   Then back on the road and winter with the snow birds.  Time for 'the old folks spring break' party.

 

Hurricane Issac stops our road trip

End of road trip.  We have turned around and are headed back to the house in Louisiana,  seems we have about 3 feet of water in an area that Craig's car is stored.  This will be a 2,000 mile rush.  I guess, we will try to drive to Mission, Tx and leave the motor home there, if we take it to La. and another storm rows in then the motor home becomes a problem. 

A neighbor called and the electric came back on today, but the road is still not passable, with a normal car.  We should get home by Thursday (we left Cody, Wy Aug 31th).  Here's hoping all goes well.

Out the door, Road Trip

Out the door, Road Trip

Finally we have escaped the stick and brick house.  Seems our wonderful home is a lot of work.  We rented the RV spot, next to the house, and got rid of truck loads of stuff.  Neighbors have gotten a lot of nice stuff for penny's.  Oh, well.  I feel like I am digging my our grave.  This was not my plans when we started a year and a half ago.

Looks like the house will sell, just need to get our clutter out.  But that means staying home and not having our RV adventers, so guess the house will have to wait.

Pulled out of the driveway about 8:30, drove 265 miles and have stopped at a Passport America park on I-49 in Louisiana.  We are headed to Craig's family in Marion, SD and then to Oneida, SD to talk about the TX trailer.  Then on to Montana to visit friends on their ranch.

Doesn't get any better than this.  Peace at last.

misson tx

yes we have not moved.  Hidden Valley Park is becoming a ghost park.  The Winter Texas have headed north.    Craig has several follow up Dr appointements.   Guess my CA plans are over.  We will just have to wait and see what door opens.

Louisiana House

Have not posted for a while.  Blogger constant changing really throws me off.  Not a hard thing.  Seems my post from April 19th never accrued.  Will try to figure these changes out.

Anyway we are having a HUGE garage sale, here in the Louisiana house.  Most ideas are 10 cents.  My neighbors are having a blast walking off with my stuff.  Makes me happy.

We may have sold this place but they would not take it over till Jan. 2013.  We will owner finance, so a lawyer and contact is in order.  This is going to break my heart, I have a lot of blood in this place and Chief (the famous Chief) is buried here.  We are hoping to move to Texas.  Taxes are hirer their but we will be in a 55 plus community and have more to do and less work around the house.

Well, this is it.  Will try to post and maybe later try to post pictures.  We will see.

misson tx

Waiting for the VA to send Craig s ID badge, then we can make a Dr appointoument.  Beginning to get hitch itch.  Would like to be in Phoenic, AZ for March 22nd.  We will move next week to Martin Ranch over by LaJoya.  We will be on concert and have a huge cover and potio.

RGV Vallely TX

Still here!!!!  Craig's cobra health insurance will run out soon.  We have not been able to find a company that will cover him.  Sooooooo, he finally said "let's go to the VA office".

We filed for va disability and health care.  But this is a slow process.  Because we have very little income we qualify for the health care, but now we have to wait on an ID badge and then see a doctor.

Oleander Acres RV Park has had electrical problems sense the day we arrived.    We complained but it was raining and the want-a-be electrical guy wanted to wait for dry weather.  Craig told him the problem was in the transformer coming into the park but no they did not listen.  Ran as much as possible on propane and didn't plug in the computers.  Finally Mon they got it fix.  Guess what it was.

Sense the electric is OK now and the mud is drying out, we have paid to March 5th.  Hoping that all of the VA stuff will be done by then.  Still want to be in Phoenix for the Sam's Club Rally starting March 22nd.

We are doing no site seeing.  We do visit with Craig's Uncle and Aunt but they do not site see.  After 20 years guess they have see all.  Both are over 80 and watch how much they do. 

Mission, TX

Moved from McAllen to Mission (15 miles) to get closer to the Port House we are thinking about buying.  Turns out it is very hard to get a house loan if you do not have a job, and getting, your own money, out of 401k is not working.  They will only loan us $50 thousand of our money.  Craig is only 58 years old and that make a difference.

Anyway, our thoughts now are to back up and restart.  Our plans are to travel for 3 to 5 years (Craig will get older) then sell the Louisiana house and pick a better place to live.  Sooooo, our road trip for this summer is back on track.  We should leave here Monday and head towards Big Bend National Park, then Phoenix AZ, then Grand Canyon, then CA.   Something like that.

All is good.

McAllen, TX still

I thought we would already have left to go west by now, but we are still here.  Craig has enjoyed visiting with his aunt and uncle.  Uncle Dean and Anne have wintered at this place for the past 20 years.  They have a farm in South Dakota.  Dean says that this may be their last year.  He is 82 and doesn't like the drive thru the big towns to get here.  We will see!!  They are very very busy and have lots to do here.  Anne sings with a group here and a lot of up north farmers, so the boys talk up farming.

Craig and I have looked into a 55 plus community and are thinking of buying.  The owner of this port house is coming home around the 12th.  We will hang here and talk with them.

Mcallen Park is charging us $200 dollars a week, so we will find a cheaper place.  Oleanda Acres Park is $145 a week or $380 a month.  We should go there.

My head hurts trying to decide what is best to do and how to make it happen.  We have not made a loan in years.  How do you do that?  Can we get a loan if Craig is not employed??

South Padre Island TX

we arrived in  mcallen tx , in the afternoon mon the 28th.  craig,s uncle is here, they started winter ing in tx 20 years ago.  they where youngin,s of 60.a couple days ago our norcold fridge door fell off, missed my foot by inches.  quotes to fix where 500 to 750 dollars.  that does not include labor.

One week and we goooooo

We are working sooooo hard to complete our lists.   Do you make lists????

We have a huge to-do list for the house and one for the coach.  At some point all will stop and we will just pull away.  Part of me can't wait to pull out and part of me wants to stay in my house to  make it pretty.  If you have read previous post, you understand that we hardly ever live in this house.   It has just sat here needing maintenance and love.  Oh well,  maybe next year.  I still want to keep to our 2 year plan.  Craig was laid off of work Dec. 20 th 2010.  We decided to take two years off and travel with total freedom.  No working and actually spending money.  We are living on savings.  Hard to believe that a full year raced by.

The Condo went to Big Wheels repair shop in Hammond, La. and $1,000.00 later we now (think) all of the routine maintenance items are done.  We have been in the shop 4 times, this year, and ever time the bill is around a thousand dollars.  What's up with that.  This time, we changed the transmission fluid and filters, that big belt, repacked front wheel bearings and replaced the hydraulic and water filters.   These expenses need to slow down or Craig will be returning to work. Our Coach is running and doing great, we just want to know all these items are done.  Done by us.  The dealer said they did all of this but we have found that they lied.  Go figure.

I miss blogging and I am hoping to learn to post pictures, again.  So many bloggers are great writers with clever funny ways of saying things.  I know I am not one of those, but I do care.

Enough about poor me.  Let's start our engines and goooooo RVing.

My Coachmen Class B RV is just sitting in the yard.  I miss it.  The famous Chief and I put 110,000 camping miles in the RV.  I can't seem to let it go.  Maybe I should sale it.  We did it without GPS or cell phones.  Just me and my dog.  Took guts, several times I was scared and in a bad place.  Ten years traveling in the B coach, traveled 4 to 5 months of the year and usually traveled 6,000 - 6,500 miles.  Not bad of a crazy coon-ass lady.  Those where the big trips.

I call the RVing world. THE OLDER FLOKS SPRING BREAK, AND WE ARE NOT TELLING THE KIDS HOW MUCH FUN WE ARE HAVING.

Planning 2012 trip

In 2011 our trip to the east coast, all the way to Prince Edward Island lasted about 8 months.

In 2012 we will head West, but will do different.  First we hope to be in McAllen, TX by Jan. 25th and stay about two weeks to visist with Craig's uncle.  They have snowbirded here for the last 15 years.

Then to Big Bend for a few days.  Then AZ and meet up with other RVer's.  Then to the Grand Canyon area.  Should stay their long term and tour in the CRV.  All depends on the weather (temp).

My goal is to have June July August in northern CA and OR.

Looks like this will put about 7,500 miles on the coach.  In 2011 we put 8,500 miles on the Coach.

I am soooooo ready but I do not want to be in the Coach and be in very cold weather.  Just saying.