We Made It South

Our trip south to our winter stomping grounds was uneventful, which is a good thing.  We set our departure time for 9:00 am, which is really early for us night owls, and only missed it by 30 minutes.  We left at 9:34 with steps up, door rail tucked closed, antenna down, and LuLu in the back seat.
So far, so good.

We made it safely to our spot on November 1^st which was our plan.  I am too tired to take any pictures or remember any details.  After we got set up we went out and ate at Luby’s cafeteria.  This idea of going through and picking your entrée and two sides was foreign to Clark.  What’s this?  You can’t keep going back for more?  What a silly rule!  Needless to say, between his meal and half of mine he was happily satisfied.  He came back, hooked up the water and then went for a bike ride around the park.  I, on the other hand, did what any normal person would do, I took a long nap!

The office to our park is closed for the weekend so we don’t have a schedule of activities yet.  I am going to take advantage of the pool for sure, but probably not until Monday because I am hoping my antenna will pick up the local channels down here and I can watch some football!

The weather is beautemous!  It was 87 degrees, with low humidity, at 3:30 when we left to go eat.  It is 64 now and the low is 61.  The park is quiet.  We are going to sleep with our windows open.  I love that!  We have been hearing the coyotes howling which does remind us of life on the farm. 

I will say that being home from April to October we never once regretted our decision to full-time.  We so enjoyed our time with family and friends but when the temperatures started dropping we were hearing the call to go south.

Update on my Mom

It has been a very long time since we blogged, and from the previous blog, you know why.  After spending all spring, summer, and fall at home with my family, I lost my mom on October 12^th.  Anyone who has lost someone you love knows that feeling of heartbreak.  You actually feel a pain in your chest as if your heart truly has broken. 

My Mom and Dad on her 77th birthday.  She would be gone less than 3 weeks later.

I have so many things to be grateful for:

* First and foremost I am so grateful to God for sending his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins and for rising from the grave having victory over death and then offering us all the free gift of salvation.  I am thankful my mom had accepted that free gift and could call Jesus her Lord and Savior, just as I have, so I have the peace of knowing I will see her again someday. 

*I am thankful that I was able to spend so much time with Mom and was “home” when she passed. 

*I am grateful for family.  There are five kids in our family and we are all believers in Christ, as is my dad and my husband, Clark. 

Denise, Sandra, Mom (without her wig), Sheryl, Debbie and our "baby brother", John.

My family is close and through this time with our mom we were strong for each other.  We spent more time together than before because we never knew when our get-togethers would be our last.  There were times we would play cards and Mom would join us with enough strength to enjoy a game or two.  Then there were times when we sat around the living room talking while Mom sat in her recliner listening but too tired and weak to say much more than, “I am listening”.

Sandra and Sheryl sneaking Mom a kiss!

*I am grateful for my family to send us on our way to resume our travels with their blessing.  I have had such mixed feelings of leaving but they all tried to make it easier for me. 

*I am grateful to Clark for being so supportive through it all.  He encouraged me to spend as much time with family as possible and took me anywhere I needed to go.  God truly blessed me with Clark for a husband.

I would like to close this blog with something one of my sisters, Debbie, wrote.  She spoke for us all when she wrote her thoughts.

Thank You, God, For The Time You Gave Us With Our Mom

It has been about 16 months since Mom was first diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

The leukemia had progressed so quickly Mom was admitted to the hospital. While she was there, the doctor told us, “Some people never go home.” We asked You for more time and You answered our prayer. For that, we are thankful.

When they started Mom on chemo, we were told if the chemo didn’t work she would have 3 to 4 weeks to live.  We asked You for more time and You said yes. For that, we are thankful.

“If the chemo works,” the doctor told us, “she will probably have 6 to 8 months.”  Once again, we begged for more time - one more anniversary and birthday, the birth of another great-grandchild, another Thanksgiving. Please, God, one more Christmas.

You gave us all of that and more, more than we could ever ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), and, again, we are so thankful.

You decided now it was time to take Mom home to be with You.

We won’t have to ask for more time ever again because we know that someday, when we go to Heaven and see our Savior and our mom, we will be there with them for eternity. And for that, God, we are extremely thankful.

Thanks to all of you for your prayer support for our family.  Believe me when I say we could feel God’s love through it all as He answered your prayers for us.  God bless you all.

Update by Clark

Sorry we have not blogged anything in quite some time.  Sandra's mother has leukemia and had been doing well with her chemo when we first hit the road.  Shortly after arriving back to the Topeka area, her mother was told the chemo was no longer working.  Since that time, she has been hospitalized at KU Med in Kansas City. We will be staying in the area so Sandra can spend as much time as possible with her mother during her current treatments.  

We will begin blogging again when we resume our travels.  Your prayers for Sandra's mother and family would be greatly appreciated.

Heading Back Toward Kansas

I am sorry I have not updated my blog in quite some time.  I started on some new medicine that has made me feel pretty sick the last two weeks but I am finally, evidently, adjusting to it because I am feeling myself again. 

We left the Escapees Park in Livingston on April 7^th and headed to Nacogdoches – about an hour from there – a really long travel day!  We were originally headed to Topeka for a funeral but I just did not feel well enough to travel that far, so that is as far as we got.

 We stayed at Shady Pines RV Park right off of Highway 59.  Their weekly price was $100.00 with full hookups so we stayed a week.  The spots were extremely close together and not a park you’d want to be in if you planned to spend any time sitting around outdoors because of the closeness of the rigs. Also, being so close to the highway there was a lot of noise. It worked for us though, because for the most part, I slept the majority of the time we were there. No TV stations to speak of using the antenna either, so we read a lot, which is how we spend most of our free time anyway.  Clark is not a big TV watcher and we both love to read.

The park was located right behind CC’s Smokehouse.  In fact, that is where you pay for your spot.  We got there at lunch time so we decided to eat lunch there since we were there anyway to pay.  They serve what they called a Cowboy steak.   It was a 10 oz sirloin which was pretty thin so quite large in diameter.  They served it on wax paper right on a tray and that was your plate with your fries right alongside.  It looked so odd to see people cutting a steak on a plastic serving tray!  But I am telling you, that place was jam-packed with men in work trucks.  We talked to one guy who said whenever he is working in the area he always plans his routes to be around CC’s for lunch.  It was a busy place the whole time we were there.  Clark ate a smothered hamburger steak with mushrooms, onions, and brown gravy.  He thought it was pretty darn tasty, but I am not sure he enjoyed as much as he could have had he not been looking at all of those cowboy steaks!  You know, the grass is always greener.  We did plan to go back there so he could get one but we never made it. 

As I said, we didn't do much since I didn't feel well but we did make it over to their azalea garden one day. The azaleas were in bloom and there were paths all through the garden.  It was very pretty.  I love azaleas.  I even tried growing one a long time ago but it was just too cold in our neck of the woods.   

We saw a lot of beautiful flowers on our trip with all of the wild flowers that can be found in Texas.  The wisteria blooms are very pretty but the plant itself is spindly and not all that to look at. 

And of course there are those Texas blue bonnets growing wild.

 In addition, we were in the Piney Woods of Texas so there were pine trees everywhere.

Overall, a very pretty spring time trip!

I Hate Spiders!

Clark was outside getting the bikes out and airing up the tires and I was inside making the bed.  I saw a cobweb around the frame of the closet.  Now, this place isn't that hard to keep clean and I couldn't believe we already had cobwebs!  I wiped it off and went back to making the bed.  Well, the closet door was not closed completely so as I was sliding it over I saw a fairly large spot on the sleeve of one of my nice blouses I wear to church.  I went to brush it off and then remembered the cobweb.  I pulled my glasses down to take a closer look first and saw a spider like I had never seen before.  It was the size of a baseball with hair all over it and it was licking its lips!  Okay, it was smaller than the tip of my pinky and bald and I couldn't see the mouth, but still it was a spider. 

Of course, I immediately went to the door and hollered for Clark but he didn't come fast enough to suit me; so I went back to see if the spider was still there because I wanted him gone but I didn't want him to just scurry off on his own and then not know where he was.  It was still on my shirt so I decided to be brave and take the whole shirt – hanger and all – out of the closet and calmly give it to Clark to take care of.  I reached up and got the hanger, holding it so I could see the spider at all times, and started for the door. 

Now, this wasn't all that easy for me to do. I was really creeped out by even carrying the shirt with a spider on it but I did what had to be done.  Seriously, what would I do if Clark weren't here?  After all, I couldn't really expect Clark to come running every time I see a bug.  Besides, that isn't a healthy thing for either of us to be doing – running, that is – nor is it a pretty sight.  Just as I reached the door, the man-eating spider started running up the sleeve toward me.  I freaked out! 

I opened the door and threw the whole thing outside on the ground with a shriek.  Unfortunately for Clark, that is when he decided to answer my call of distress so he was met with the blouse, the spider still on it, full on in his face!  As I am screeching about what happened, he is realizing that this could be a bad thing for him.  He quickly grabbed up the blouse from off of the ground to see if the spider was still there.  It was, but not for long.  My hero knocked it off and killed it ever so quickly. 

For some reason, I keep feeling things crawling on me when I go to bed at night…

Day trip to Galveston, Texas

Woke up mid-morning, as usual – we have not been able to make ourselves become human, we continue to stay up really late and sleep in but guess that is just how we are wired.  Anyway, we woke up mid-morning and Clark asked me if I would like to go see the Gulf today, heck yeah!  We got around pretty quickly and took off.  We headed toward Galveston on state highways and county roads.

When we got to the bridge over the intercoastal waterway, Clark got a little nervous.  He does not like bridges and he didn't like how high this one went up.  He said he was glad I was driving!  We saw barges on both sides of the bridge and then swampy areas all around it.

Bridge over Intercoastal Waterway

Barges on the Intercoastal Waterway crossing under the bridge. 

When we got to the first place we could stop as soon as we saw the Gulf, at High Island, we got out and took some pictures.  Listening to the roar of the waves was awesome!  I will say that the Gulf is definitely a lot different than the Pacific Ocean in California which has those massive rocks and waves crashing off of them, but it was still cool watching and listening to the waves and knowing we were at the Gulf.

High Island

As we drove along the strip of land following the coast on the Bolivar Peninsula, we saw all of these houses built on stilts.  It is hard to imagine that the water can get so high during the storms and I am sure they hope the waves don’t get that high but I cannot even imagine living there with the threat of hurricanes.  Not to mention the buzillion stairs to climb to get inside.  Can you imagine carrying your groceries up those stairs?  I would have to install an elevator!!!!

We got on a ferry at Port Bolivar which took us across to Galveston.  Neither of us had ever done that before so that was a neat experience.  I happened to be driving and didn't care for that much so once the ferry was going we got out and traded places so Clark could drive us off of the ferry and then through Galveston.  I was glad of that.  I don’t mind driving on the backroads and the old highways but I don’t like driving in traffic in unfamiliar places. 

Waiting to get on the ferry.

The ferry ride was so fun!  We even saw a dolphin as the ferry was first pulling away.  There were seagulls everywhere just flying right next to the truck.  Several times I thought one was going to fly in and join us.  The size of the ships we saw was just amazing – now that I did not see on the Pacific.  We even saw a pelican dive into the water and catch a fish.  A seagull was all over him trying to steal it.

From the ferry before we pulled away.  Lots of people out fishing.

Another ferry like the one we were on but going the other direction.

Evidently, the pelicans can count - 3 to a sign.

One of the big ships we saw from the ferry.

We saw some pretty amazing homes in Galveston.  Some were very large with big fences and gates around them.  We saw lots of old architecture in many styles. 

Palm trees along Galveston Bay.

We left Galveston and went across the bridge this time.  It was a pretty cool bridge, unfortunately, Clark was driving.  He did okay though.  

We went through a town called Kemah where we saw some huge boats for sale and hundreds of boats in the marina.  Some of them were pretty good-sized boats!  There was also an amusement park there.

Wow! 

Water tower made to look like a lighthouse.

Roller coaster behind the marina.

We stopped in Liberty and Clark got shrimp and scallops – and also got to sample his first fried oyster – the meal wasn't anything to write home about he said.  I had a baked potato and called it good. 

We are now back home and writing this blog all in about 10 hours.  A fun day and glad we went.  Clark had a great suggestion this morning.  Tomorrow will be a stay at home day.  We need to wash the RV and truck.  The bugs we hit tonight on the way home hit the windshield with such force it was almost scary.  I believe if we had been riding a motorcycle, we would have been knocked clean off the bike!  That windshield will be a joy to wash tomorrow.  Poor Clark!

Texas Residents!

We have accomplished the goal.  We are legal residents of Texas – yee haw, ya’ll!  We went down to the DMV yesterday to get our driver’s licenses, but only one of us came back with one.  I was so disgusted that Clark became official before I did.  Once again, we did not have all of the paperwork we needed.  Because my name on my birth certificate did not match anything else, I had to have our marriage license – ugh!  The only way around that would have been if I had my passport which I do not have yet.  As an adult, I have not left the U.S. so I have not ever needed one.  We do plan to get one soon, so we if want to go south of the border this winter we will be ready but that was not real high on our list of things to do at this point.

So, back home we came to get the marriage license but I could not find it in Clark’s file system.  Now, I am not a very patient person so I was really frustrated by the fact I would now have to wait for a copy to come from Kansas before I could proceed with getting my license.  When Clark discovered it was going to cost us $15.00 for the license and another $11.00 to order it by phone using our VISA card, he decided he would look for it.  I would say filing it between a file folder marked electric bills and another marked VISA – and not even in a file folder – is not a very organized filing system!  He says it must have fallen through, after all, we were in a hurry packing things up in those last days.  But, if you ever saw the way Clark kept his tools or any of his other personal belongings, you’d understand why I don’t believe that!  I don’t know how that man ever found anything in his mess of stuff, but I will give him credit and say that he could usually find it as long as no one else had touched it.  He doesn't believe in putting things back where they go, he just believes in remembering where you left it last which is a kind of scary way to keep things at our age!  In fact, it did make me wonder why in the world I left him in charge of it in the first place!   But, as he reminds me, he did find it.  One of these days our luck will run out when his memory finally fails him.

Well, after all of that frustration, we went back to the DMV today to get my license.  I do believe I took the worst photo of my life and there are no do-overs here.  Too bad so sad, what you see is what you get.  They took my picture so fast I didn't remember to raise my head up so only one of my chins showed!  Plus, I had my eyebrows raised so high, I look like plastic surgery gone wrong!  I’m just going to tell people I thought it would be fun to make myself look as unattractive as possible for my I.D. picture that I will be carrying around for years to come. 

From the DMV we went and got the next, and probably most important, document taken care of…our library cards!!!!!  Their library is very small but I will be able to check out e-books and since Clark has left 4 tubs of boxes stored at a very kind sister’s house, he is not allowed to check out books until he gets through those. 

Following all of that fun, we went for a drive and saw some beautiful country.  There are some wonderful motorcycle roads around here, if we still rode.  We stopped and had supper before we came home and we will call this a day!