Continuing on. . .

We are currently stopped for the night in Bristol, Tennessee. We passed right by the Nascar track. It looks like a really deep "well." It is a short track and reminded me of a Chinese Checkers game or what some call Stadium Checkers. We are camped close by. It was a bit of a trick to get in here because the drive was a 180 degree turn down a steep hill, but all is well. Getting out won't be much fun, but we will manage.

Tomorrow we will be in Staunton, Virginia. Our reservations in Charlottesville start on Wednesday, so we will be getting a couple of supplies before going in the next day.

All is well with our traveling across country. At least no more tornadoes, thank goodness.

Mom was released from the hospital yesterday and transferred to Miller's Merry Manor just south of Warsaw. She is impressed with the facility and is making the most of the situation. So far the food has been good although she claims they give her too much. She eats what she can and doesn't complain about it. A lady came in today from physical therapy and said they would start by working on her upper arms. They told her that her days would be filled from now on. She said she hopes she can do it. I pray she can. She had gotten thinner and didn't have much strength, so I'm hoping this therapy will help get her back on track.

Cooler temps are prevailing now and it will be colder in Charlottesville this week. Sure wish it was warmer.

Till next time. . .

Dale

A little "twist"er on things. . .

We left the RGV on Monday. Made it to Houston and on Wednesday put my 92-year old Mom on a plane nonstop to Indy. First time she had ever flown by herself, but she had always insisted this was what she wanted instead of having a "babysitter." I put her in a wheelchair right away and got a gate pass so I could go with her to the gate. Southwest Airlines was wonderful with her and I left her in good hands. We decided to exit Houston once her plane was off because bad storms were headed our way. Actually by the time we were pulling out of camp, my sister had already intercepted her at the Indy airport and all was well. We drove to Kinder, Louisiana, to try and escape the storm chasing us there.

Along the way my sister reported that 15 minutes after leaving my Mom at her house to "take a nap" she had fallen and they were awaiting the ambulance. Turns out she cracked her pelvis in 3 places, but thank God, who was watching, there were no broken hips. She will soon be transferred to a nursing home for rest and rehab. I know my Mom will try. Surgery was not called for because neither hip was broken and this is the standard treatment. I'm sure she will always use a walker from now on but we all thought she should have been anyway and she refused. I asked Mom if she wanted me to come to her and she said, "Heavens no. There is nothing you can do here. I'm being cared for." So we will move on and in two weeks will be back to check in on Mom once we arrive for doctor appointments as we planned. I only get to see my grandkids twice a year for one week as it is and Mom knows how important that time is.

In the meantime, we were at Coushatta Indian casino and Red Shoes campground at Kinder, Louisiana, to dodge that storm rolling through Houston and had a tornado hit our campground at about 5:15 am yesterday morning. It flipped a 30' trailer over about 100 feet from us and then passed on to the perimeter fence where it took out about 600 feet of board fence. Then it crossed a small field almost directly hitting a house, tearing the roof and twisting and downing trees around it but leaving the main house intact. Before crossing highway 165 it hit a new motel and left the metal roof in pieces strewn across the lawn and highway. Next time I vote for staying put.

Power was out in the camp till noon when we left. We heard the occupants of the trailer were okay. EMTS and workers arrived very quickly and pulled the residents out the top which was actually the side escape window since is was laying on its side. I think it would have continued to roll but it had rolled into a picnic table which seemed to hold it.

Living in the midwest all my life, I've seen enough tornadoes for a lifetime and don't need anymore. This one was so quick, almost just a microburst of wind, but the telltale twisting of the trees was there.

We are now in Zachary, Louisiana, visiting Terry's cousin and wife. We had a fish fry last night which is second to none at Gary's since his hobby for 30 years has been as captain of a fishing service off Grand Isle. Hmmmm hmmmmm good.

Take care, and stay safe out there.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Here we go again....

We're on the road again. Today we left our winter spot in the Rio Grande Valley. The past week has been spent, putting stuff away, doing some maintenance items on Phaeton Place and “summerizing” our Texas lot and Texas room.

Dale's mom, Alice moved into Phaeton place yesterday and we closed up her place for the season. At 92, she's not planning on returning this fall and we will be hopefully selling her place for her.

Tonight we are parked on a camp site at Gateway to The Gulf RV Park, on the south side of Victoria Texas. This made our travel today about 250 miles, after closing up the Texas Room this morning. Tomorrow we have only about 110 miles to cover to Advanced RV Resort in Pearland Texas, which is south of Houston on Texas 288. We hope to visit with Dale's cousin Jim Turley, after we check into the RV park.

Wednesday morning will be an early riser for us since we're taking Alice to Houston Hobby Airport for her flight to Indianapolis where she'll meet up with her other daughter Nita. Dale has it all set up for her to accompany her mom to the gate, to make sure she makes her flight.

Thursday we're off heading east toward Virginia to see Jocelyn and family. Late April we need to be in Central Indiana for our spring doctors appointments.

And Now for Something Completely Different!

Hi everyone!

Our plans this spring will be different. Normally when we leave Texas, we travel across the south to Florida to see our son and family, then up to Virginia to see our daughter and family. This year will take us straight to Virginia, bypassing Florida. After Virginia, we head to Indiana for our 6 month doctor appointments. After that, we head to Florida for an extended stay. Our son's MIL has just gone on dialysis and is not well enough to babysit for their 4 year old. Brandon earned an incentive trip with his company, so he and his wife are going to be gone for a week and we agreed to babysit. That's why we changed our trip around, so we could get our doctors out of the way. We have decided to spend more time in Florida once they return, maybe getting some windows changed out on the coach and some other work done. At 12 years old, she's starting to show her age. We decided to spruce her up rather than buy new again.

We will hang around in the south until Terry's family reunion in Mississippi in June, then gradually work our way back to Indiana for 3 months. We still have one rental and hope to begin cleaning it out and getting it ready to sell.

Last year we both had surgery, so our travel was extremely limited. But this year we are both in great shape and will be able to do what we want!


Until next time. . .


Dale

Not much going on....

We've been fairly sedentary for the past few weeks. Last Wednesday we took in the lunch buffet at The 2nd Street Bistro at the Double Tree in McAllen, turned out to be a very good Tex Mex offering. It was 2 for 1 with 2 beverages, which made it a fairly decent deal. We also have been hitting some of the country and rock and roll jams at local parks. The weather is forecast to be much better in the coming days, into the high 70's to mid 80's.

Dale's been busy with crocheting classes and Spanish classes, here in the park, seems to be enjoying both. Also she has made a lot of headway on getting our tax records sent off to our preparer of many years in Indiana. In the mean time, I have been basically a slug doing only what needs to be done and catching up on my sleep, which has been hit or miss about every other night. Either waking up at 2:30-3:00 for the day or sleeping until 7:30.

This next weekend we have entertainment at a local park by Adam Pope and The Rebel Roots. They are a 3 piece rockabilly band fronted by Pope, who is a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. This will be our 4^th show with him performing and we hope to not miss it.

Yesterday started off with the second “dead” battery in the past week on the Flex aka Oster Toaster. I used my compact jump start and it fired right up. I checked the voltage at the battery while running and found 14.5v from the alternator. After about an hour of running and charging, I turned it off and found 10.43v at the battery terminals. At this point it was off to the local Walmart for a new battery, This morning all is well the Flex fired right up without any hesitation, but I had a low battery alarm from our, Tire Pressure Monitoring System, driver's side rear needed a new battery. So that interrupted my planned early morning nap, as I replaced the battery which should make that sensor good for a year, just have 19 more batteries to replace over the two motorhomes and two toads.

I think Duchess and I will wait for Dale's return from one of her classes at the patio table, take in some sun, read some and more than likely, both doze off.

Until next time...Terry

It's a New Year......

So far this year we've experienced three cold snaps here in the Rio Grande Valley. We've had a couple of nice days, high 70's to mid 80's then back to the refrigerator. You notice I didn't say freezer, because not like northern Indiana, ice cream will always melt here if left outside overnight..We have had a few nights of low to mid 30's but that is much better than what the northern US has been receiving. This morning it's 51 with a high in the 60's – low 70's.

We've been hanging out close to the RV for the most part, other than the few days it was in the shop for annual maintenance and a perky repair. Dale had been seeing low fuel pressure/boost error/engine shutdown message on her command center screen. It started out as a seldom event and had started displaying every time we started rolling for 2-4 seconds then disappear until the engine shutdown and restart. The excellent folks at Holt Cat RV Center in Edinburg, Texas came through again and corrected the problem. It took a few hours of diagnostic work but all is well. My Silverleaf engine monitoring system which runs as we travel had 20+ error codes showing in the “diagnostic history” section. . . the Cat ECM computer at Holt showed two codes maxed out to 255 instances. Now our turbo, waste gate and fuel systems have been all checked out and we have a new boost actuator valve and a new boost sensor. All is well. A rather cheap repair as diesel engines go from past experience, $390 in parts and around $450 labor. So at 131,225 miles Phaeton Place will be ready to roll when we leave the Valley in a few months.

Dale Ann and her Mom have been attending park dinners, with me staying at the RV to fend for my self, just too much salt for me in these “home cooked meals,” which I don't care for anyway. If I'm going to gain 3 pounds from eating a meal overnight, then work for 3 days to get rid of the “water weight,” it's going to be something this boy likes.

Well that's all I have maybe Dale will add some more....Terry