Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2014!  I know a few of our friends are really ready for a new year!

We had a great holiday visit with our nephews.  We spent a lot of time with Craig in the evenings after work while Claire was studying.  We had some dinners, some wine and some shopping...what more is there!

We had dinner one night with Stephen and Marissa.  She was going to a cheer competition for her little sister and we weren't going to see her on the weekend.  They came over to see the new motorhome and Stephen is in the driver's seat!

Claire's mom and dad, Linda and Ernie, were interested in seeing our new motorhome so we invited them over one night for wine and appetizers.  We had a really nice evening with them and they seemed to really like our new home!  They are in the process of downsizing from a home they lived in for 28 years.  They had put an offer in a 1750 sq ft condo and their offer was accepted.  They will be living closer to Craig and Claire and right by Fig Garden, a shopping center near Craig's law office.  Ernie is not thrilled about moving but Linda is happy to downsize!  We went to dinner after seeing their new condo with Ernie, Linda, Craig and Claire and had an enjoyable dinner.

The night we were doing our Christmas, Stephen was sick, Marissa was out of town and Chip was coaching a wrestling tournament so we spent the evening with Craig and Claire.  Craig arranged for a chauffeur for us.  The lady drove them over to our house so Claire could see our new home and then took us to The Palms Restaurant for a really great dinner.  Our food was delicious, the atmosphere was wonderful and it is so much fun to be with the kids!  Craig even brought the bottle of Silver Oak wine we gave them for graduation (they had already polished off the Dom Perrignon) and another bottle of wine which we managed to polish off (hence the chauffeur)!   They dropped us old folks off about 10:00 and off they went to other parties!  

Even Sophie posed for the picture!

We got down to San Diego on Tuesday the 17th.  We visited with friends and were getting ready for Christmas until I started getting lower back spasms!  We spent time at home so I could get healed.  Went to the doctor and got some muscle relaxers and pain pills which really helped me get through Christmas!  Today I'm feeling almost myself again...thank goodness!

Ted and I had a great Christmas Eve lunch with my long time friend Peggy and a lovely Christmas Eve evening with our friends Jeri and Stach and their son Tony and Gina and their kids, Mallorie and Trent.  Christmas day was spent with Gina's sisters family and we all had a good time and a good Italian Christmas dinner!  On Sunday we had brunch with Jeri and Stach at the Hilton.  It was a beautiful day but we forgot to take any pictures until we were leaving...

Of course I have to add a picture of Sophie who is sleeping with Dad!

Happy New Year..."Ain't Life Grand!"

A new blog…can you believe it? And, I have a lot to report!

We had a great time in Las Vegas.  Our friends Jeri and Stach arrived on Monday, November 25^th.  We had a nice dinner together and did some catching up before gambling!  The highlights of the week included dinner at David and Debbie Hawkins’ home on Wednesday evening, Thanksgiving dinner at Boulder Station, Christmas lights in the cactus garden at the Ethel M Factory, Lunch at the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel and mainly our time spent with our friends!

We left Las Vegas a day early because we had some really good news!  Our nephew, Craig, passed the bar on his first try!  He took the 3-day exam in the end of July and just found out end of November whether or not he passed!  I didn’t realize that all the attorneys’ in his firm passed on their first attempt so he really had pressure to do it also!  So we left Vegas early to get to Fresno to attend the Swearing In Ceremony!

The ceremony was on Wednesday at the Fresno County courthouse.  There were about 30 that were being sworn in.  There were about eight judges there and representatives from the Fresno Bar, California Bar and one other Bar (and not a saloon)!  They gave some good speeches and then they called each name and they all stood and were sworn in together.   After he was sworn in, we were able to take pictures and they had a small reception. 

We then went to dinner with Craig’s brothers, Stephen and Andrew (Chip), Chip’s girlfriend Laura, Claire’s mom and dad (Linda and Ernie), Craig’s mentor from his law firm, Kim and of course Craig and Claire.   We had a wonderful dinner at this little Italian Restaurant.  The owner is a woman who doted on us and made us feel very special and the food was really great too!

So we left Fresno Thursday morning for Atwater, California.  It is a small town south of Sacramento and just north of Merced.  Our friends Billy and Vicky live there.  Ted went to High School with Vicky and they graciously host a Su-Hi Christmas gathering at their house for a weekend party.  It was a small group this year but we still had lots of laughs and a great time.  Our Christmas gift exchange was fun as always, especially when our Hostess, Vicky, selected a pretty platter and threatened us if we tried to steal it.  I think her exact words were that she needs the platter for this Christmas party she has every year for a bunch of Assholes, and they better not steal her platter!  Phil (a classmate) got an unexpected surprise!  He thought he won a great gift but instead received one of his own gag gifts back…a beer bottle doll with his own ponytail on it.  We ALL had a big laugh over that!  It was really really cold up there and yet Vicky and Billy’s son had a group of guys come over on Saturday afternoon forming a band and playing older surfer music for us!  It was a lot of fun!

 A couple of the classmates came over to see our new RV!  Sophie believed they were there to see her, (some were)!

On Sunday we were all meeting for breakfast.  We were almost late because we didn’t think about the fact that we might have a bit of ice on the windshield!  I think it was about an inch thick!  We finally got it defrosted and made it on time!  This picture was taken after about 5 minutes of defrosting already!

After breakfast six of us headed south (us in our motorhome) and stopped at Tehachi Palace Casino for gambling and dinner.  We spent the night in the parking lot and then came back to Fresno today!  We will be here for a week visiting with the kids and preparing for Christmas!

A lawyer in the family…”Ain’t Life Grand!”

Viva Las Vegas Baby!

On Sunday morning the 17th, we left Boerne around 8:15.  Since we got out early, we made it all the way to Van Horn, Texas.  We got set up and had dinner at the KOA Kafe!  The next morning we decided to have breakfast at the Kafe and then got on the road about 9:15.  We had just gotten on the freeway, not even up to full speed when we heard a loud thud or pop!  Ted pulled off at the first off ramp and we got out and walked around thinking a tire had blown.  No sign of a bad tire or anything.  We got back in and Ted looked down and all the instruments were going crazy.  He first noticed that the gas tank (which was a full 100 gal) showed empty, thinking but there was no gas on the tow car or anywhere.  Then noticed all gauges were crazy.  Pulled back over and made some calls.  We talked to Cummins (who makes the engine) and then they determined we should talk to Freightliner.  They all decided we were okay to drive and took off for El Paso a two-hour drive.

We got there and of course now they were busy.  We sat in the RV for awhile and then Ted had them do an alignment to make sure that as okay.  At 5:00 they told us to go to the campground and come back at 7:00 a.m.  We did that and they finally took us in around 10:30.  He worked on it until 5:00, still had not found which of a bundle of wires was the problem and back to the campground we went.

Finally on Wednesday he found the shorted wire, fixed it and off we went about 11:00.  Everything worked well and we breathed a sigh of relief!

Here's how Sophie spent her time at Freightliner.  She was really a good girl:

We had a reservation in Vegas for Wednesday so I had called and changed it to Thursday.  Another long day but we made it around 4:00.  We set up, showered and were ready for our friends David and Debbie to come by to meet Sophie and see our new motorhome.  Then we were off to dinner.  It was their 43rd wedding anniversary so we celebrated!  It was a fun evening and we enjoyed visiting with them.

On Friday we had lunch at Boulder Station and tried our hand at gambling.  Machines are tied down pretty tight but we had a good lunch.  On Saturday we met one of his former co-workers, Howard who also lives in Vegas, for lunch at the Red Rock Station.  Again leaving a deposit but having a good visit with Howard.  On Sunday David and Debbie invited us out to lunch.  We had a fun, long lunch and then headed back to the campground.

Today we ran errands and our friends Jeri and Stach are on the way over from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with us.  They are probably arriving at the hotel as I type this!

We had lots of rain Thursday, Friday and some on Saturday.  It's been in the low 40's at night and today was the first day it made it into the 70's.  Much more normal Las Vegas weather.  There is even a little snow on the surrounding mountains!

Chilly nights in the Motorhome!

Sophie and Mom kicked back on the drive to Vegas:

Friends and Vegas..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Posting from Boerne, Tx

“Elvis has left the building”…and so did we…finally! 

My last blog was written on Monday the 28^th of October and to catch up where we left off, that Wednesday we got in to a bay to get the leak fixed that we had in the sewer storage area. 

We picked up our chairs and the bedspread promised when we ordered the RV.  I love the new bed cover (and the cute puppy on it)!

On Thursday the tile guy got in and got the tile re-grouted.  It looked like he had re-grouted the whole floor but as epoxy grout takes a week to cure, we know he probably didn’t do the whole floor and the grout colors appear like they are still going to be different colors.  He did get the places that looked as though there was no grout done so it’s all the same level of grout.  On Friday he came back in and wiped all the gooey stuff off again and we’ve had to do it a couple of more times.

Friday afternoon we had a new satellite dish put on the roof that will get all three satellites.  The one they put on would only seek one satellite and so you could only watch and/or record one channel.  But we could watch TV while driving down the road.  I don’t know about anyone else, but we travel down the road to see the scenery!    We still had some tweaking that will be explained later!

Oh, one other thing that happened on Friday.  We left Sophie out of the crate to go over to the office to pay.  She chewed an ink pen and then stepped in the ink and we had paw prints all over the freshly grouted floor and on two pieces of white leather furniture.  Yes she is still alive and perhaps only because we were able to get every bit of it cleaned up.  She is now crated if we even step out of the door without her!

So Saturday morning we got out of there about 8 a.m. and drove all day to Springfield, Missouri.  Started in Alabama, through Mississippi, into Tennessee, over to Arkansas and over and up into Missouri!  5 states in one day, I think a record for us!

We got to the campground at 5:15, Ted dropped off the car and Sophie and I took off to Petsmart to get her heartworm medicine!  Made it in time…whew!  On Sunday we drove about an hour to Long Lane, Missouri to visit our friends Bill and Ginny Nasse.  We camp out in their yard since they only have 300 acres to choose from!  They have a large wooded wildlife area and I have no idea how many acres for the barn and house.  Sophie loved running free with no leash for those four days!

One morning we went to the Rocking Chair restaurant.  We all knew what that meant...hot, huge, yummy cinnamon rolls and we were ready!  You get at least two meals out of one!

We had some other good meals including going to The Cave again!  It’s about an hour from their house and the restaurant is in a cave.  You have to get there by a shuttle and as you can tell it was a bit chilly waiting for the shuttle!  It is a resort on a river with cabins, the restaurant and bar, a sweet shop and gift shop!

We had a delicious turkey dinner and dessert! The front door and the bar area are not in the cave but the rest of the restaurant is in the cave.  They have special equipment to keep the water from dripping and have a couple of ponds inside to store all the water that would be dripping everywhere.  They had it decorated for Christmas and it was pretty inside.  Pictures didn’t come out so well.  This is a picture of the pond in the back of the cave!

We left there Thursday morning traveling down to Boerne, Texas.  We drove into Oklahoma and I remembered some of our “Traveling Supreme” group talking about a casino they enjoy in Oklahoma.  So I found it on the Internet and imagine that, it was right on our way!  We drove late all day and got there around 6:00 pm.  It is the Winstar Casino.  They have a great campground and charge less than $25 per night if you have a players’ card.  Since we were there the first time, we got our camping for free.

We set up and took off to the casino for dinner and some gambling!  We decided to play a little before eating and our first machine we both put in $5 and got up.  At the second machine we went to we both started winning!  We finally decided we better eat and at the restaurant in the Paris section.  They are divided by cities.  I had a great croissant breakfast sandwich and Ted had a wrap and back to the games! We each walked away with at least twice what we started with.  Everyone I spoke with was doing terrible so I have decided that the first time you use your card, they set you up to win!

On Friday morning we left early and got to Boerne around 4:00 pm.  Ted’s cousin and her husband had gone to a wedding and we were going to see them on Sunday.  On Saturday we drove over to our San Diego friends’ Pam and John to see their new house in San Antonio.  They have a lovely new home and are really happy to be settled down again.

The four of us went to lunch at the Longhorn restaurant and then they came over to see our new motorhome and meet Sophie!  We had a great visit with them and may see them again tomorrow!

On Sunday we were at Cheryl and Dan’s (John and Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law) for lunch and da Bears game!  It was a really close game but unfortunately they lost.  We went over to John and Gloria’s and Sophie loved playing in their back yard.  We were so full from lunch we had dessert for dinner!  Isn’t it great what you can do when you are old!  LOL

It’s been a busy week here in Boerne.  Ted and I both got haircuts (and color for me), Sophie got a bath, we got our satellite dish completely set up in the motorhome, we’ve had lots of great meals with John and Gloria including dinner out at Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant and we’ve gorged ourselves in fabulous desserts made by Gloria!  I swear we’ve gained a bunch of weight while we’ve been here.  We had lunch with a San Diego friend, Laura JoAnn and had a good visit with her. 

John and Gloria at Maggiano's:

Today we went with Gloria to watch her grandson, Jack, take his Taekwondo test.  I think he’s 8 or 9 and he’s a green belt.  He will find out Wednesday if he passed.  It was fun watching and it is an exhausting sport!  There were a few adults and I give them a lot of kudo’s for participating!

Jack and his Mom, Cheryl (John and Gloria's daughter)!

We are leaving in the morning.  It’s been a quick but fun visit here in Boerne!

Sophie, mom and dad:

Fat and sassy…”Ain’t Life Grand!”

Making progress...

We are making progress, but are not finished yet…and are at the end of our second week in Red Bay!

Okay, last week we finally got to go in the bays…where the real work is done!  On Wednesday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. we got “the call”… “you have 20 minutes to go to Bay 32!”  Okay, we were ready in 15 and at the bay! 

Ted pulls into the bay and they immediately plug in the electricity.  They are huge bays and they tell us to open the slides.  They talked to us about what needed to be done and then they went to work.  One slide had a roller “fall out” when we first got the motorhome.  We wanted them to check it because in Utah they just bent the bracket back and put the roller in.  Also, we noticed that the cabinets no longer matched up at the top and bottom on that whole slide.  Ted also noticed that the roller was rubbing the bottom of the slide.  They put metal along the bottom of the slide so that the slide was protected.   For the cabinets, they said we needed to have spindles at the end of the cabinet to support the cabinets in the middle and this would be done at the cabinet bay.

Next was the bed slide rubber seal problem.  The rubber had gotten caught in the slide mechanism and ripped.  It was such a big tear, we could see light coming in from the outside!  That proved to be more difficult to get done but they finally managed to do it and we were out of there at 4:30.  The day is normally done at 3:30 so we were glad they put in overtime to finish the slide.  Since they were running late the supervisor was there and I asked where our paperwork goes from there.  He asked what else we had left and then told us we should be ready to show up at Bay 7 (Air Conditioning) when they called on Thursday, (we were second in line). 

We had the motorhome ready to go around 7:00 a.m. (just in case) and kept our eye on Bay 7!  As soon as the motorhome left I went in and asked if they were ready for us.  The guy said, sure come on in, even though he said he didn’t know if we were next or not!  The water from the air conditioner is supposed to be pumped down a tube inside the wall and out the bottom of the RV, which ours wasn’t doing!  They found the pump was not working and put in a new one!  It seems as though it is working now!

When he finished, I asked if I could go with him to the next stop, the cabinet shop, to see when they would have time for us.   The supervisor was gone but Billy in Bay 7 got the cabinet guy in Bay 25 to get us in first thing Friday morning!  So at 7:00 we were at Bay 25 and got the spindles put in and a touch up on one of the walls.  He also was able to even up the cabinets, that putting in the spindles didn’t correct!  Here is a picture of the three wood braces or spindles they added.  I think they look okay, Ted’s not so sure. 

View of spindles from the kitchen:

 

View of spindles from the living room:

So now it’s another weekend!  On Saturday Ted and I went to Fulton to Walmart and had lunch at KFC.  On Sunday we drove to Tupelo, Mississippi, about 50 miles to go to Pet Smart to get Sophie’s dog food and her heart worm medicine.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Banfield Vetinary service at that Pet Smart so we were not able to get her medicine.  We found a place with a patio outside to have lunch.  I went in and asked if we could eat out there, the young woman said sure.  I go to the car, we get Sophie out, a blanket to lay on, her water and her food.  Go in the patio and then I go inside.  Another lady is there and said “sorry we are not serving in the patio today”! Arrrrgh!  So we had a fast food lunch in the car and found the Starbucks, making Mom a happy woman and drove back to Red Bay, another exciting weekend!  Sophie found the drive relaxing as always.  She slept in the back seat on the way there and in mom’s lap on the way home! 

It looks like tomorrow we will get in Bay 19 (Body Shop) to have the shower buffed out.  It came with a lot of scratch marks on it.  We also have discovered a leak from our grey water tank.  It is a small leak that is going to be difficult to get to.  The water leaks into the sewer bay, but at least it is clean water!  So that will be a plumbing bay.  And we still have the tile and levels to do!  Will keep you posted on the Kercher Motorhome Saga!

More Sophie pictures.  We are in Bay 32 and she's guarding!

Finding Starbucks in Tupelo, Mississippi…”Ain’t Life Grand!”