Antiquing

We called the kids and followed them to a great breakfast place this morning. We had to wait for a table that would seat the six of us but it was worth the wait. Then we went onward finally to McKinney, TX antiquing. On the way we stopped at an estate sale and found several pieces we needed for our business. At this sale they had some Norman Rockwell plates that matched some we had bought at an earlier sale in Kerrville. At that sale we got three of a set of four plates and at today's sale they had the same set, but all four. We checked our set and planned to get the fourth plate but it was sold. That is the way it goes in the antique business. We didn't really care.

When we arrived in McKinney we finally found the courthouse square which had several antique stores in the area. We enjoyed the whole thing and managed to find a couple of glasses that we needed for our business. We finally got home about 4:00 and noticed that the temperature varied between 104 and 107 degrees. It is supposed to get up to 110 on Wednesday. Think we will survive? Happy travels.

Settling in

We are getting settled in here in Denton, TX. This means lots of trips to the storage unit to bring back lawn chairs and take other things we no longer need like suitcases. Then we have had to make several trips to nearby stores for groceries and other stuff. In the meantime we went to a favorite store, Cost Co to pick up a hearing aid that they had repaired for me. The last time we were here we left it for repairs and they called to let us know that it was ready to be picked up. We went about lunch time and they had lots of samples, so many in fact that we never did get or fix lunch.

We have been over to the kids house to see if they needed anything from Cost Co and could see all of the progress made by Kim in her unpacking. Now they even have pictures up on the walls and Chuck plans to get the garage organized today so that when he returns next week he will have a place to park his car too.

Kim is going to California this coming week for 4-5 days for a clarinet conference and we will be taking care of the boys. Foxy is already planning field trips after getting input from the boys. We will be kept busy for sure.

It is quite hot and muggy here. Kerrville was hot but dryer and we did not notice the heat as much as we do here. It is also a few degrees hotter like 103 degrees which add to the discomfort. I am looking forward to fall and cooler weather.

We met a nice couple at the grocery store who also are full timers living in their motor home. They are staying in a park about ten miles East of here which is less expensive. We may look into that. Happy travels.

We are in Denton, TX

On Wednesday we visited with and said good by to Roy, Paula and Ron, Rosetta, and Bobby and Vicky. Roy continues to work at the Guadalupe RV Resort which is also where Paula and Ron live in their fifth wheel. Rosetta, Bobby and Vicky work at their antique mall, Sunrise Antiques where we used to have a booth. All are such good friends and we will stay in touch and hopefully get to see them from time to time.

Max sounded like he was bouncing a ball at three in the morning on Thursday and by five we could no longer sleep so we got up and finished packing up the coach and were on the road shortly after seven. We stopped for diesel fuel twice and made it to Denton by early afternoon and were set up by about four. The phone rang and it was grandson Christian who wanted to know where we were and when he learned that we had arrived yelled, "Yeah!" Now that is a great way to start a new adventure.

Shortly Kim and her boys arrived to see where we were located and we all decided to go out to eat at Red Lobster, which was good food as always. Kim then left for the airport to pick up her husband, Chuck who has about two more weeks of working in Ann Arbor before he transfers here too. We came home and fell into bed. The last three weeks have been work but being close to one of the kids and helping out when needed will be quite rewarding. Happy travels.

Saying goodby

We have been saying goodby this past few days. We met Bill and Connie for lunch at a nearby hamburger joint and while there also saw Ed and Sandy that we had done some stained glass work for a while back. On Sunday we did much of the same at church and it took us quite awhile to finally leave. We have made such good friends there. Several offered us a place to stay when we come back to town. Then we decided to drive to Fredericksburg for a lunch. We tried three great places, all closed on Sunday, and finally stopped in at the Sunset Grill. We had their brunch special which was New York Strip Steak Eggs Benedict which was wonderful. We also saw Dr. J there with his family. He had done my cancer surgery a year ago.

On Monday we met Dave and Lois for dinner at Mamacitas and sat out on the patio talking non-stop throughout. The food was excellent and the conversation even better. Today we decided to go to a movie, "Friends with Benefits." A delight for sure and such chemistry between the actors. So we have one more day and much remaining yet to do, people to see and places to go before we hook up the car to the motor home and head North to Denton. Happy travels.

If the Lord is for you, who can be against you

John's sermon yesterday was wonderful. He spoke to this passage from Paul' book of Romans - "If the Lord is for you, who can be against you." He gave several examples that made his case. I think we all forget that we are truly loved in spite of how bad we might have been. Isn't that magnificent? I do not have the wisdom or words to say more. Happy travels.

They called him Lucky

We have lived in our motor home since 2000 being fortunate to travel as we wish being able to visit many beautiful parts of this country. When you live in an RV park you get to watch other campers come and go and frequently see small rigs and large. Sometimes it boggles the mind to see an expensive rig show up. One of the most spectacular has a roof top area that had been turned into a patio. We also have enjoyed knowing how many slides each rig might have. The maximum number of slides seen so far is five. These slides enable the inside to seem more spacious.

Yesterday a truck hauled in a large fifth wheel RV and parked it just across from us. Of course we had to watch the whole operation. Living in an RV park makes you very aware of the happenings around you and of course you get to be the spectator. The truck finally got the fifth wheel backed in and several men emerged to set it up. One of the men apparently hit his head probably on the overhang and it requited a bandage. Then they got out their dog. The dog has three legs and can only get into the RV if he is lifted up by one of the men. Otherwise the dog gets around quite well. We have decided they call him Lucky and are waiting to see what his real name is. Happy travels.

BJ's Restaurant and Brewpub

Today we went to San Antonio for a Cost CO run and to do a bit of shopping with the reward a visit to a good restaurant. We were headed to a restaurant near the interchange of the outer loop and 281 when we noticed a traffic jam on the outer loop. We quickly changed our plans and decided to stop at BJ's Restaurant and Brewpub at the Rim Shopping Center. A wonderful hostess seated us in a booth and we learned that she was in college and encouraged her to continue her studies which she assured us she would. Then we has as a waitress, Paula. Paula has two sons and her family has been in various aspects of the restaurant business for many years. She is a natural and quite helpful as well. She served us a porter and a stout from the bar which were both excellent. Foxy had a Cobb Salad and I had a salad with pizza topping on flat bread. They were both excellent. The Cobb salad was large and Foxy took about half of it home for another meal. My portion were just right and little was left on my plate. Paula took excellent care of us and we encouraged her to quit smoking which she has tried once or twice in the past. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Paula and highly recommend this restaurant and brewpub. We went here once before when it had just opened and it was excellent then as well. Since then we also tried another in this chain at McAllen Texas which was commented on in an earlier post in this blog.

On the way home we went through two rainstorms and the temperature dropped from 98 to 75 degrees. We need rain so badly here that we were delighted for the showers. Maybe in will rain in Kerrville before the day is over. Happy travels.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

We thoroughly enjoyed watching this 3-D movie. It is non-stop action throughout and the 3-D effect adds significantly. I have to think back about 14 years ago when the first book came out and we picked it up in London. J.K.Rowling is a fantastic writer and writes a terrific yarn about good versus evil. Each successive book gets deeper into the characters and she take you right along on her artistic journey. I wonder when she will take up her pen and give us another great tale to ponder. I hope soon. This particularly movie is the pinnacle of all of the others and ties much of the story together. I had to begin re-reading all of the books and enjoy the story all over again. Happy travels.

Round two of move

Round two of move completed. We have driven our second load in a U-Haul truck to Denton and both loads are now in storage up there. The truck was turned in yesterday and toady we returned to Kerrville. This time the trip took about five hours which is the fastest we have made it so far. In about a week and a half we will hook the car to the motor home and make our last moving drive North to Denton. Then we can settle in there in a different RV park and get to know the Denton/Dallas area better. There are lots of restaurants and shopping so that should keep us busy. At time we will be helping Kim with the boys. The good news is that her husband Chuck has gotten a job in the area and will be moving to the area in about three weeks. They have been busy settling in and getting unpacked. We helped them where we could and they helped us unload our trucks both times. It was hot both times and the sweat ran off. Heck of a way to lose a pound or two. Happy travels.

Second load ready to go

This morning we met Carlos at our other storage unit and loaded into our U-Haul truck furniture, and art work and then back to the first storage unit for all remaining items. Now we are ready to start our second trip to Denton in the morning after Foxy completes another rehabilitation session. We plan to return to Kerrville on Sunday for final doctor appointments and rehabilitation sessions. Max will go as well even though he really does not like traveling all that much. He just does not want to be left behind. Happy travels.

Check your phone bill, watch for scams

We were watching the Today Show this morning and they had a special segment on third part billing scams and subsequent charges on your phone bills. Senator Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia has a committee working to uncover the truth on this type of phone scam. He pointed out that the phone companies profit to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year since they allow third party billings and make a profit from them. An example of this type of scam is texting. If you signed up for texting then there is no problem. If you did not sign up for this service and you are getting billed for it then you are paying for a scam. You can call your phone company and not allow any third party billing to be added to your monthly bill.

While checking with our company this morning we were informed that we would be billed incorrectly this month. We like Verizon because of the country wide service available for computer access to the internet. We do not like this company because they do manage to mess up our bill with great regularity. Fortunately Foxy keeps track of the bill each month and then complains to them when it needs to be corrected. For example this month the bill is incorrect because although we have 450 minutes to be shared between our two phones, they also managed to bill us for going over 50 minutes on our second phone. The actual fact is that they were trying to have it both ways. They wanted us to share between the two phones the 450 minutes and also charge us if we went over 50 minutes on the second phone. They are tricky and you have to keep after them. Sorry about the complaining in this message but I hope if you check your bill you will find everything correct and that you are not being scammed. Happy travels.

Home again

We packed up to go back home this morning from Kim's new home in Denton, TX. Max got real excited when I started taking bags out to the car. I left him in doors while I packed the car and soon Kim brought out all of the dogs to see why Max was barking. He jumped right into the car and stayed there so that he would not be left behind. Once on the road he settled down and did not make another peep until we stopped for gas. I had left his leash back at the house so had to get a new one so that Max could be safely let out of the car. The trip back to Kerrville seemed to fly by and by early afternoon we were home to discover that somewhere along the way we had lost the keys to open our motor home. We went through all of our belongings to no avail and since we had left one window unlocked, I borrowed a neighbor's ladder and climbed in through the window. Such an adventure. I guess tomorrow I will have to make a new set of motor home keys. It is good to be home but tomorrow we rent our next truck and repeat the trip back up to Denton with the rest of our things from our storage units. This next trip should not be quite so arduous as it is a few pieces of furniture and the remaining boxes. Carlos packed us up for the first trip and will return to do the same for the second one. He did a great job and so far we have had only one casualty, a yellow vase. Then we will return and move the motor home up to Denton where we will relocate and make our new home. Happy travels.

One third complete

On Thursday we hired Carlos and a friend to help us load our stuff from one of our storage units in Kerrville. Carlos proved to be an excellent packer and after two hours of hard work, the U - Haul truck was full. The next morning Foxy went to rehabilitation early and by ten we were on the road. I drove the truck and Foxy drove our car. She has not been driving for over a month so it was work for her too. Max went along and kept me company in the truck. We stopped North of Georgetown for a quick bite of lunch and then continued to Denton where we arrived in the middle of the afternoon. The only problem we had was getting through Ft. Worth where traffic was very slow. We may try to go home a different way to see if we can avoid the Ft. Worth traffic.

On Saturday Chuck helped us unload into our new storage unit near their house. With a good sense of relief and lots of hard work we turned in the truck and locked the door of the unit. Now we need to return home and repeat this procedure one more time to get the rest of our stuff which is stored in our other unit. The final stage will be to bring the motor home North and we will be relocated in Denton, Texas. It is a lot of work but we will be close to daughter Kim and her family and be able to help her as needed. Happy travels.

Larry Crowne

This afternoon we went to the movies to see Larry Crowne starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. Julia was quite believable as the community college professor of English. She portrayed a teacher who is burned out on teaching until she begins to interact with the Hank's character who is trying college for the first time. I did not expect to like this movie but was quite entertained. Happy travels.

Moving our storage unit

At the end of this month we plan to move from Kerrville to Denton, TX to be close to our daughter and help her as she might need. Since our doctor visits are beginning to come to an end we have time and can begin the business of moving the stuff we have in two storage units here. We rented a U - Haul truck today and tomorrow will be joined by some helpers to unload the unit and fill the truck. Then on Friday after Foxy has her rehabilitation session we will head North to Denton. It will be a full three days since on that end we will have to unload the truck into our next storage unit. What a joy. We will also be looking for items stored that can go in an antique booth in a store in Denton. We have decided to restart our antique business which should keep us occupied in our spare time. Happy travels and pray for cooler weather.

Cedar plank grilling

The other day when we were at HEB, our favorite grocery store and buying fish, they were having a sale where if you bought fish they would also give you a cedar plank for grilling. "Sounds good to me," I said. Tonight I tried it with Steel Head Trout for dinner. I soaked the plank for about thirty minutes and put it on the grill for a few minutes before adding the fish. We used Cooper's dry rub and let it smoke/cook for about fifteen minutes till flaky. Not me - the fish. It was great and very will smoked and quite moist. I had thought it would be dry and was glad to be wrong. Try it and you should like this delectable way to cook fish. Happy travels.

Critters

This morning when Max and I were taking our walk around the park we got to see a momma deer and her baby twin fawns. Max wanted to chase, but I kept him on his leash, and we moved onward. The babies are very cute but quickly grow up into adults who enjoy eating your flowers and shrubs and also frequently bolt in front of your car. In the Hill Country deer are a real traffic problem and the local comment is, "Not IF but WHEN you hit a deer." That says it all. We get to see other critters on a morning walk like opossums, skunks, snakes, and lots of birds. It is nice to live in a park and share the space with these critters. Happy travels.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope each of you celebrated a wonderful Fourth of July. Here in the Southwest there were not as many firework demonstrations since it has been so dry from our extended drought, Kerrville did have a celebration which we could hear from our home but chose instead to watch a Capital Fourth on the television. We had been invited to have dinner with good friends Bill and Connie. It was a good meal of hamburgers, fruit salad and potato salad. We topped it all off with Bourbon Slushies, a specialty of Connie's. It was great fun, and we got to also meet their neighbors Sandra and Denny. So for us this was a lovely way to spend a Fourth of July. Happy travels.

Pizza, pizza

I know that advertisements do pay off or there would not be any. Last night I happened to catch an ad for Chicago style pizza at a place in San Antonio and I was in trouble. I talked Foxy into getting a medium pizza at Domino's which is nearby. I called and ordered it and drove over there to their store and picked it up about fifteen minutes later as they had suggested. It smelled so good that I was tempted to have a piece on the way home but fortunately the box was in the back seat and too hard to grab while driving.

Once home we arranged plates and dove into the deep dish, all meat pizza. This was not a Chicago pizza, but it was good if maybe a bit too much crust. I managed to eat three pieces while Foxy worked on two. It may not have been the best pizza in the world, but it sure tasted good to me. Besides, I did not have to cook. Yeah! Poor Foxy has had to put up with my cooking for the past five weeks while her shoulder recuperates. I suspect that she is working so hard because secretly she can not wait to get back to being the cook and leaving the dishes to me. I don't blame her a bit since from my perspective she is a vastly better cook for sure. Having had a pizza fix there only remains a KFC trip and my culinary skills will be completed. Happy travels. P.S. I have never had a Chicago pizza but hope to live long enough to try one. Sounds heavenly to me.

Bandera, Texas, here we come

Today we planned to go to Bandera, TX with good friends Connie and Bill. They had advertised a car show, a craft fair, and a cowboy shoot out in this cowboy capital of the world. We always enjoy the drive there and quickly found a parking place by the county court house where the craft fair was set up. The ladies enjoyed all of the jewelry booths but Bill and I quickly came to the last booth to discover a smooth talking guy selling Bionic Bands that cured everything. I really think he may have been selling snake oil cures but it was interesting to say the least. Now if his stuff really works then we missed a bet. I liked his believable spiel but resisted buying. We then left and went looking throughout the town for the car show but alas it was not to be. It had been advertised but did not seem to be realized. So what to do.

Go shopping of course and we visited many of the stores that lined the main street and some on side streets as well. Finally being shopped out with little to show for it, we stopped for lunch at the OST (Old Spanish Trail) restaurant. It was very busy and we had a short wait but soon had our name called and entered. Food was plenteful and my hamburger was excellent. Connie had a taco salad which she enjoyed but could not finish. Bill had a Phily sandwich and liked it. Foxy hit the buffet and while she liked the salad bar has not since enjoyed an aftertaste of the chicken fried chicken or steak that she also sampled. So a mixed review for sure.

We never did see the cowboy shoot out either but did catch a glimpse of the stage coach ride. The best part was enjoying the visit with Connie and Bill. Happy travels.