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! 

Our First House Guests!

     We had our first overnight visitors!  Chad and Amanda were in the Dallas area and decided to come see us.  We were pretty excited about that.  They stopped and picked up lunch from a place called Woody’s in Centerville, Texas.  We had stopped there for gas on our way down.  Inside they had smoked meats that smelled heavenly.  Clark saw they had turkey legs for $6.95 and had been salivating over them ever since.  We didn't get any at the time because we were trying to get to Livingston before dark that day, so we had no time to waste.  We may as well have stopped because, if you recall, we didn't make it before dark.  Anyway, since they were going to be going right past there, we asked them to stop and pick up two turkey legs for Clark.  He would have one for lunch on Saturday and save the other for later.  The saying that everything is bigger in Texas certainly proved to be true, at least regarding these turkey legs!  Clark was in heaven.



Does this turkey leg make me look small?



Are you sure this is really from a turkey?

Chad was hangry (said Amanda!) so we ate as soon as they arrived! 

Amanda muggin' it up for Mug root beer.

  

     Chad and Amanda taught me how to play Farkel.  Amanda kept score the first game and beat us bad.  Of course, she did confess she forgot to write one of my scores down, so I kept score the next game.  Yep, I won that one!  We gave Chad a chance to keep score too but he passed on that.  Evidently, he didn't mind losing.

     Chad and Amanda slept on our couch that makes out into a bed; it has an air mattress.  I wasn't sure of the mattress size so I had packed a set of full sheets as well as a set Clark’s mom had used in her RV.  I remember at the time she gave them to me she said they were for a ¾ bed.  I wasn't sure what that was but I had kept them.  I was sure glad because the double bed sheets were too small and hers fit this mattress perfectly!  Chad and Amanda said they slept pretty well on it.  They did let out a little of the air so it wasn't quite so firm. 

Tucking Amanda in for the night.

Looked so comfy I had to try it.

Guess three's company.
Amanda told Chad to get the pillow - this is an inside joke and it cracked me up!!

     It was a good trial run to see if we could stand to have extra people in such close quarters.  We had a good visit and found we could handle 4 people in here pretty well as long as everyone was respectful of each other’s space.  Good to know!