Handy Kind of Guy!

We went out yesterday to give this geocaching thing another whirl. Brenda was our secret weapon as she found everything . The picture below shows her digging a cache out of a hollow tree in the middle of the Fulton Cemetery. Those of you who know her know she loves to visit all the local cemetery's so it won't surprise you to find out that the two caches we found were both in cemetery's. It is a lot of fun and combines a litte technology with a good old fashioned scavenger hunt.

The other thing of interest around our campsite was Dennis working on a bowl. He has a small lathe and can take an old piece of firewood and turn it into sawdust and a beautiful work of art. I managed to capture the process but the patience he exhibit was beyond capturing. Below he is cutting the chunk of wood to start off. It turned out so well I won't even comment on ALL the safety gear he is using.

Still looks like just a piece of firewood in the photo below.

Now the bark is starting to be trimmed off.

And here it is starting to take shape. It's all in the way you hold your mouth I guess.

And here is the finished project and Brenda will proudly display it on one of the shelves in our home on wheels. Imagine yesterday this was firewood today it is a work of art. Great job Dennis and thanks.

Just a Whirlwind!

We are still in Rockport, much to our surprise, as yesterday there was a Tornado warning here and Brenda was sure we were going to be carried away to parts unknown. As you all know trailer parks always seem to be in the path of these things, so we pretty much, as my friend Joe says, have a bulls-eye painted on our backs. After all the excitement and dire warnings on the TV the clouds parted and the sun came out with the birds singing. Dennis next door managed to take some photo’s of our campground so if you want to see the river running through pop over to his blog and have a look.

Earlier in the day we had some excitement of a different sort. When we first arrived here there was an elderly couple and their son (we think) setting up a trailer in the site next to us. They built some wooden steps as the older gentleman had trouble negotiating those RV type steps and then spent a couple of days cleaning it up and getting it ready to serve as a summer get away. They live in San Antonio and this was their place at the beach. Well it turns out the trailer, unbeknownst to them, was stolen. They had apparently bought it from someone who didn’t really own it so the Aransas County Sheriff and his boys descended on it this morning. They were crawling all over and under it checking serial numbers and then climbed inside through one of the storage compartments to check out the interior. I guess they had already informed the older folks of their bad luck. Too bad it always seems to be elderly folks who can ill afford it that these kind of things happen to.

Bob and Molly popped over as they were making their reservations for next winter and were in the park anyway. I really think they just wanted to see what kind of calamity was happening around the Brown camp today. We seem to always have some kind of entertainment going on here, sheriffs posse’s, tornado’s, etc.

Later we took a run down and across the ferry to Port Aransas today. Brenda loves to ride the ferries to and from Vancouver Island so is always keen to go anywhere there is a ferry ride involved. I think she was surprised and a little disappointed when she realized that the ride is about 3 minutes long and just goes across a shipping channel for about a ½ mile. We took a drive on the beach while we were over there and then proceeded into Corpus Christi. Just for Mickey who is always wondering what it is we are eating, we went to Olive Garden where I had the very healthy Soup and Salad special and Brenda had the salad and 3 appetizer special. I had to help her out with the appy’s though as my body is better adapted to handle all that cholesterol than hers. After that we ran over to Sam’s Club to pick up a couple of things we needed (nope no paper towels, Moss) and then headed back to Rockport. We sure didn’t want to miss out on the tornado warning as I mentioned earlier. I know some of you are just waiting to see what kind of lunch we had and how cheap we had it, but remember Corpus Christi doesn’t have a Costco and Sam’s Club just doesn’t know how to make the free sample thing work for lunch so we actually have been dining in a lot of restaurants and eating the same food you unretired folks are eating.

After the tornado and the minor flood, Brenda and I thought we should give this geocaching thing a whirl, so to speak. We downloaded some caches and found one real close to our campground here. Off we headed with GPS in hand for a short walk over to find this thing. Well as it turned out Flip Flops were not the order of the day. There were a few thistles and a lot of vines that snag my feet and cut them just like wire cuts so I think that when we go to find that cache again we will have better footwear and maybe find a less direct route. Not surprisingly when I went back and read the notes on this cache they said specifically “don’t wear flip flops or shorts when heading here as there are cutting vines around”. Damn I hate to read the instructions before doing something……lol. So to date we are cach’er 1 – seekers 0.

Friday we just hung around the campground most of the day, except for a quick trip down to HEB for some fixin’s for dinner. Bob and Molly joined us this evening and we had a great visit with them. Molly brought with her, the most delicous crab cakes, I know Brenda was asking about the recipe and I sure hope she got it memorized as we certainly will want to have them again. They are heading off tomorrow so for the first time since we got to Kerrville there will be none of the Dreamers close by. In fact we were having such fun visiting that I actually forgot to take some pictures so here they are just before Bob drove off blinded by the flash into the night. And for those of you who are party to the earring story you can tell it was the left one that we found here later.

This just a shot of the park here, especially the Canadian section. Those are the Langs and our Jeeps parked off in the distance. The last few days have seen a steady stream of "Winter Texans" heading out of here for points north.

More of the Same and Maybe Not!

Thought I should drop a few words here to let you know that we are still enjoying the fine weather of the Texas Coastal Bend. Not too much exciting going on so it will be short. Yesterday Bob and Molly dropped by as they were scouting out campgrounds for next winter. They didn't stay long but we are seeing them tonight for a visit over dinner. We ran out to HEB and picked up a few things, although we are not doing much our daily walks seem to keep our appetites healthy, maybe too healthy. We had Dennis and Denice over for dinner last night and Brenda was once again in fine form in the kitchen, and the grill. Steak, sauteed shrimp scampi, spuds and corn on the cob. No wonder I have to walk twenty miles a day just to stay even.

Today we did our walk around the neighbourhood a little earlier so it was not quite as hot although the humidity is getting pretty high for us prairie kids. Back home we think it is dripping hot when it gets up into the 30-40% range. Here it starts at 65% and spends the day working it's way up till you sweat when you blink.

Denice and Brenda went off on a shopping expedition today without supervision. I guess this gives them time to handle all the goods in the store. The damage was not to bad though, Brenda came home with a couple of pairs of flip flops, thongs for those of you with clean minds, and a new t-shirt for me. Strange she only has one pair of feet but many pairs of shoes. If she got anything else she had it put away before I saw it so it will now be in the category of "ohh, I've had this forever!!" Nice for them to be able to get some girl time away from us though, Dennis and I had the woes of the world to solve anyway.

The campground is emptying quite quickly as the "Winter Texans" head back for their summer homes, hope they don't get bad weather along the way as it seems like the midwest is getting hit by a little inclement weather.

This afternoon we went over to Bob and Molly's for a visit and a little of Molly's southern hospitality. Beautiful motorhome folks, I love the floors. Once we ate and drank all their goodies we decided to go out for supper. The Boiling Pot was the dining establishment of choice. It is an interesting place. You get a bunch of things, King Crab, Crawfish, Blue Crab, Sausage, Potato, Shrimp all thrown in a big pot and boiled. They come and dump it all in the middle of your table, without plates or tools of any kind except a little wooden mallet and tell you dig in. Well dig in we did, but Brenda was having a little problem with the fact that most of the things we were eating had faces and were looking at her. So Bob and Molly ended up hand feeding her after they had removed the faces. There were some things there that I had no idea how to eat, but like everything to do with eating, I caught on fast. It was a great meal but maybe not one you should go for on a first date. Really folks, we do have utensils back in the frozen north, and don't always just rip our food apart and wolf it down.

Here are before and after shots of our table

Thanks folks for sharing the evening with us, we had a great time.

What's Up?

Good question, but since we got back from the King Ranch we haven't done too much. We had a flurry of activity yesterday when we took the laundry out to find a laundromat, and headed to Walmart to pick up some more provisions. We found a laundromat but it was not really up to Brendas standard but it was a lot better than the one here in the park I guess. The criteria are a little bit of a mystery to me but it isn't my area of expertise so I just drive. We have been getting our walking done early in the morning before it gets to warm and I sure hope it is doing it's job from a cardio standpoint because we seem to be gaining some muscle with all this walking, or at least that is what the scale tells me. I will have to make sure I shave before I weigh next time, must be heavy whiskers or something. Couldn't be all the good food we are eating!!!!...lol..

Today was another day just like yesterday except for the fact that today our walk included the leg down to the water in the morning. We were a little later getting started and that stretch across the flats down to the sea has no shade so it was a little warm.

Tonight we got together with Dennis and Denice and headed over to Crab N restaurant. I had the Crawfish Etouffe and it along with the side dishes were great. I think Dennis and Denice had the Old Catfish (a benefit of their longer tenure on the planet) and it appeared to be good also. I am not so sure about Brenda's Shrimp and Angel Hair Pasta though. She didn't seem to think it was so great. It is a small restaurant right on one of the canals that brings the sea into a neighbourhood across the road and gives access to the sea to all the homeowners, so we could watch the herons and leaping fish go by while we ate.

Today we had a little visitor as we sat outside and ate some of our peanuts. He moved right in and started to enjoy a little sunbathing right along with us. As long as we shared the peanuts he was willing to just loaf around all day but once that ended he moved on to the next suckers.

So as you have probably figured out by now not much is up! We are just enjoying the weather and hoping those back home are getting dug out from yet another snow storm.

King Ranch

Today began with a great job. The flapper in our toilet was not engaging any more so it was either stuck open or stuck shut. I had to get out my rubber gloves and proceed to tear the whole toilet apart. Not a fun job and you might guess I had a few choice words and thoughts about the engineer who designed this thing. Although I am sure he is living proof that the little ring engineers wear on their pinky does cut off the blood supply to their brain. My apologies to all those smart engineers that wouldn't think of designing such a shi*ty system.

After I got that out of the way I headed out on my daily walk. I am making it the full two miles before breakfast but at the rate I am consuming victuals (Mickey -that's defined as "supplies of food or provisions") I really need to be traveling about 10 miles.

Then we grabbed Dennis and Denice and loaded up and headed out to the King Ranch near Kingsville, Texas. At 825,000 acres it is one of the largest ranches in the world. Beautiful ranching country but no worry about hills, there isn't one for a hundred miles I don't think. We went to lunch in Kingsville at Harrell's Drug Store, they have a good little restaurant in the back room that serves a wide variety of food for dirt cheap prices. After lunch we headed back out to the ranch and went on the tour, down past the Horse Barns and a bunch of their Santa Gertrudis cattle and a lot of acres. The highlight of the tour was stopping and talking to a retired Kineno named Lolo who had actually put the first rides on the Triple Crown winning Throughbred, Assault, here on the ranch. I am sure if we could have got rid of the rest of the tour folks he could have told stories all day about the ranch and it's operations. This is the carriage house near the big house and is built in the same style as the Alamo. Until 1925 when Mrs. King died the ranch was actually known as the Santa Gertrudis Ranch, after her death her daughter and her husband changed it the King Ranch in her memory.
After we finished up with ranch tour and Denice got a few more flower pictures around the Visitor Center
we headed back to Kingsville where we had a look around the King Ranch Museum and then the Saddle Shop, a high end furniture and souvenir store.

Here is a shot of our dinner place. We ate at the Hungry Fisherman and once again it was good food and at a reasonable price although we didn't indulge in the chicken gizzards or livers and stuck with seafood.

Where Does the Time Go?

It is a couple of days since we posted last and I can't figure out where the time goes. We haven't done much over the last couple of days except enjoy the weather and the location. Yesterday we headed out to lunch to Charlotte Plummer's restaurant and then down to the Fishing Pier for a look around. There were lot's of fisher people out there but no evidence of fish. I'm thinking that the fish were all watching the same dolphin we were and thinking now is not the time to be chasing around the pier after a bunch of fake squid. There were also a few white pelicans hanging about, but they looked like they were just enjoying the sunshine also.

We had Dennis and Denice, and Rod and Loyce over last night for dessert and a visit. The time passed quickly and before we knew it everyone was heading home. As Rod says once RV'ers midnight (9PM) hits it is lights out for most folks. Rod and Loyce are heading for home today so they were off fairly early in the morning. Drive safe.

Yesterday we also got our Star Choice satellite back on line so now we can keep up with the news back home. It is nice to see that it is warming up there. We are not much more than a month away from heading that direction so a warming trend will be welcome, it has been a long cold winter for those back home.

Today we didn't do anything, except for a little polishing on the rig and a lot of reading and snoozing. Oh yah, we actually did do our 2 miles before breakfast today but then we seemed to have to rest up all day after that. Tomorrow who knows, maybe the King Ranch. This makes two days in a row that we haven't been in a grocery store and I think that may be a record for our trip this year. No sign of the victuals running out either.

H.E.B.

Here Everything's Better or so they say. It's a Texas based grocery store Heather, and it is a good one. We had to go over and pick up some more stuff for supper. It is some kind of a mystery, we shop for groceries almost every day and never seem to have what it is we want for supper. Oh well, it isn't like our day is to busy for a run to the store. Today we hung out in the campground most of the day, other than the HEB run, and got a few things done around the bus. Started off the day getting the top sides cleaned up, yesterday we did everything that could be done from the ground. I made it down one side and when I turned the corner there was the neighbours so I had to stop for a visit. While I was sitting there I saw that our window awning had pulled out of the track and needed repairs. There is a small dowel like piece of plastic that needs to go in the edge of the awning and the one that was (maybe) in there was gone. Dennis next door had a piece from another awning and although it was too big a little work with a file managed to trim it down to the proper size. That fixed we needed to set around for a spell and do some more eating. Finally got the whole bus done by the end of the day.

The picture above shows a different kind of sodding job they have done here. Maybe they need to wait until they get their stimulus payment before they can put down the other half of the sod. Rumour has it that it will fill in by itself over the summer, I guess we will see if we get back here next January. The shot below is of our site next winter, #87 to the left and yours if it is #85 Joe is to the right. They must be keeping them empty so that the grass has a chance to spread before we get back here.

And here is a shot of our little piece of Canadian territory deep in the heart of Texas. That is Dennis and Denice's rig flying the Stars and Stripes and the Maple Leaf.

Oh yah, Dortha we made it four laps today!

Happy St. Patricks Day

Today most of North America and probably a large part of the population elsewhere makes claims of having some Irish Heritage and I am no different, my maternal grandmother, Annie (Kee) Brown came across from the "old sod" back in the early days of the 20th century looking for a better life for herself and her children to be. Well Grandma, thanks, cause for the most part you found that better life and your descendants are still reaping the benefits.

We started off the day with a walk around the park. We haven't got up to Dortha's 2 miles yet but we are over 1.5 miles so far, maybe tomorrow. But after a week of non-stop eating at Kerrville we are happy with 1.5. The move down a couple of days ago was through the rain most of the way and the Jeep was covered in grime so we scrapped all that off and it is looking as good as new again.
This fellow in the site next to me must have missed the Safety Meeting that focussed on the safe use of ladders. Didn't appear to have any fall protection on either.

We went for a walk along one of the beaches near our site and ran into these colourful young ladies in their Spring Break finery.

Now here's the mark of a true friend, someone who will haul you and your fishing pole, in his barefeet, across the water, all the time walking on partially crushed oyster shells.....ouch!

We went down around Goose Island State Park and snooped up and down a bunch of little roads. We found the Lamar Cemetery and as usual Brenda was out looking around and visiting all the residents. It was an auspicious day to visit here as the oldest grave marker is that of Patrick O’Connor (1822-1854), a direct descendent of Roderick O’Connor, the last king of Ireland. There were a lot of headstones of infants and many of their mothers who died in childbirth, tough times back then before Medicare I guess. The picture below was of one of those small roads that eventually led us to the "Big Tree". The Big Tree of Lamar is one of the most famous in the world.The giant live oak is a charter member of the Live Oak Society of America, and has been the subject of one of Ripley's "Believe It or Not" cartoons. It is measured to be more than 35 feet in circumference, 44 feet in height and has a crown spread of 89 feet. The Texas Forest Service estimates the tree to be over 1,000 years old.
The Big Tree is also known as the Lamar Oak, Bishop's Oak and the Goose Island Oak. It is recognized as the State Champion Coastal live oak. It is said to have been a council tree for the Carancahua Indians and for the white men who came after them.

After all that sightseeing we of course had to stop at a "Home Accent" place cause you never know when the perfect do-ma-hickey will turn up for the motorhome. And we didn't forget our mandatory daily stop at a grocery store but this time it was the HEB in Rockport, guess the Walton folks will have to go on short rations what with us not being in Walmart today.....yet!

Back to the Real World

Today we are in the Last Resort campground in Rockport, Texas and things are getting back to normal. We left the gang in Kerrville yesterday and only have two rigs full of folks that we know in this location, Dennis and Denice and I see Rod and Loyce pulled in this afternoon. We of course ran out to make sure we knew where the local Walmart was and picked up a few groceries. We also stopped and washed the Jeep it was covered in the rubber grime off the highway so took a good scrubbing to get down to the paint. Other than that we haven't done much today. The trees in our site are blocking our satellite and we are stuck with the cable in the park. Life is tough!

That said the weather is smartening up and we had sunshine all day so spent most of it sitting out and getting the campsite set up.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Hey, that sounds like a poem or a song or something. And who says I've never read the classics. Well to tell the truth I have no idea where I read it but it is one of those pieces of trivia that float around my head just waiting for a chance to escape and inflict themselves on an unsuspecting public. We had to pack our rig and pull out of Kerrville and leave the "Gathering of Dreamers" behind today. It was not easy, we have had a blast the last 8 days and really didn't want it to end. But the beauty of this lifestyle is it is not "Goodbye" but "See ya Later". We were hooked and ready to roll by 8:30 AM and stopped to shake some hands and give some goodbye hugs as we pulled around and headed out. Those of you we missed were probably still enjoying your sleep so "y'all come back y'here", we'll catch ya later, eh!

Once we got on the road we headed towards Rockport and The Last Resort. Along the way we stopped to get some fuel and this time our sponsorship went to the great company that is sponsoring our retirement. Strange that although Shell is a global concern us Canadians don't get our employee discount at American stations. What's up with that eh! That said the price was good and the service as usual was stellar.

After fueling up we hit the road again, through San Antonio and on down towards the coast. This is pretty flat country and it looked like a tidal surge would reach 50 miles from the coast through here. It was raining off and on most of the way, but the country looked like it really needed it so we will wait for the great weather to return tomorrow.

We got here about 1:15 and checked in for our month's stay. We had talked with folks at the Gathering who had stayed here and our friends Dennis and Denice had come on ahead a week or so ago so it was like driving into a familiar place. Before we got past the office we decided we liked it enough that we spoke for a spot (#87) next January. There are a bunch of folks that are going to be here that we now know and we thought this would give them a chance to perfect their Canadian accents.

The rain is coming down pretty steady here and our satellite is having a difficult time finding it's signal but I am sure once the weather clears that will resolve itself. If not there are a lot of channels on the cable here in the park but we like to see the Canadian news once in a while so are hopeful that Star Choice will come through.

We were over to Dennis and Denice's for supper tonight. It was great and we thought the eating was over after we left Kerrville. Once again I was wrong. Oh well there are worse things to be wrong about.......LOL

Dropping Like Fly's!!

Man is it getting empty around here. Well the campground is still full but our friends are flying the coop. Today Mac and Netters, Don and Cheryl, Rodney and Becky and Joe and Sheri hit the road home. They tell us they have this place where they have to report in on Monday morning. I guess they were out on some kind of work release program and if they don't show up back there they will release the tracking dogs to find them. Strange kind of parole if you ask me! Those of us who have served our full sentence have a hard time understanding this stuff anymore. Well it will not be long until they get to join us on the road and not have those w*rk commitments to return too. Others like Rod and Loyce are just moving on to different places and we will see them all down the road as Joe says "Somewhere in Time"

Once we said our goodbyes we finished catching up on the laundry and then headed back to the rig to do some computering and catch up on some napping. Tonight we are heading over to Rollie and Gina's for dinner and then the gang is getting together for dessert. Rollie and Gina managed to cram 16-20 folks into their rig to enjoy Gina's homemade Chocolate Pie and a few pieces of the Frozen Peanut Butter Pie that Brenda had made for last nights dinner. And I was scared that with folks getting ready to move on down the road the eating would slow down. I guess we will gorge ourselves right to the moment we get in the rig and head out.

Here are a couple of shot of the Dessert Club doing what they do best!

Shop Till You Drop...

Today the girls decided to dispense with the restraints of polite society and dump us men and head off shopping. Now given a choice between endless ambling up and down isles looking at a never ending bunch of gee gaws and do-ma-hickies and staying home and working on the blog page I chose this.....surprise......surprise. Gina, Becky, Sheri, Ginger and Brenda all jumped in Sheri's truck and off they went. I thought about calling Visa and Mastercard and declaring our cards missing but it wasn't so bad, we should be able to recoup enough money by camping in Walmart for the next month to enable us to buy fuel to get home. All in all the trip was a big success and there will be many stories that may be told but we will have to wait and see if Ginger breaks the code of silence in the blog world.

Here is a shot of the shopping Ladies from l to r: Sheri, Brenda, Ginger, Becky, and Gina

And of course after all that hard work they needed to stop for lunch.

Tonight is Breakfast for Dinner and we will be cooking eggs in a bag for the main course. As usual the side dishes will probably be the feature. I know there will be at least three Frozen Peanut Butter Pies and Fresh Homemade Waffles with whipped cream and strawberries there and only time will tell for sure what other taste sensations will make an appearance. It was a hive of activity and conversation was buzzing all over the place. This group of folks seem to have no end of subjects that they can talk about and some of them actually even know what it is they are talking about. Below is a shot of some of the Sous Chefs hard at work making sure everything was ready and up to their exacting standards, hard to get them all to stand still to get their pictures taken.

And here in the dark is the Egg Master (Mark) himself, he personally put his finger print on every omelet before releasing it to it's eagerly waiting eater.

And we thought that we should at least get one group shot of those that are still here at Buckhorn. Some have already left and others are yet to come but for those of us here it has been a wonderful week full of visiting and great conversation along with gales of laughter. Not to mention that we have eaten almost all the food in Kerrville. If a famine is declared in the neighbourhood you know who caused it.

After dinner we had many of the folks over to our motorhome for a nightcap, and another, and another and so on. Again much laughter, many stories told and even some created. Hopefully Gingers head will survive the meeting with our table. The table appears to have suffered no ill effects but I am sure she will have a bump to help her remember that we didn't have enough chairs for everyone.

Walking and Shopping and Anniversaries

Today we again walked with Joe and Sheri. Spending time with good friends makes the time go fast and the exercise easy. And by the time we are done we may have actually only covered a short distance but the stories will make it almost marathon length by the time they are all told.

After our morning stroll we decided we like everyone else here needed a trip to Fredericksburg. It is only 20 odd miles north of Kerrville and is an interesting town with a lot of shops that specialize in taking away all your disposable cash. They did a good job on us, we now have 12 different kinds of chip dip and a couple of different jams or spreads as well as a new rug just like the ones our friends here have bought to put in front of their rigs doors. That not being enough we had to stop at Walmart and pick up a few things for tomorrow's Breakfast at Dinner Pajama Party. If we are cooking eggs we thought maybe it would only be right for the Canadians to bring along a little of what they call Canadian Bacon down here. Now back home we just call it back bacon as I am sure that American pigs supply it also. That and some Champagne as I don't think you can have breakfast without Mimosa's can you. Brenda also bought some other stuff but we left it on those goofy roundabout bag holders that Walmart has so the Walton family won't have to worry about starvation for another day or two.

After we got home it was really just a laying around messing with the computer type of day as it is pretty cool here. Now don't get excited we are not looking for snow tires or long underwear but I did have to put long pants on for our early morning walk.

We have met so many great folks here this week and heard so many great stories. The one that sticks in my mind the most is the one Rollie and Gina told about their adventures with ticks. Little known to rest of us it was also Rollie and Gina's anniversary and they came with us to Mr. Gatti's All You Can Eat Pizzarie for dinner. Thanks guys for spending your 27th with us rather than staying home and enjoying that filet and wine and probably a little tick hunting.

Rollie and Gina enjoying Mr. Gatti's


Pretty near the whole crowd as I think Rod and Loyce joined us later after I had already taken the picture.

And here is that same old Mexican guy who was Master of Ceremonies at Brenda's Birthday now he is doing Rollie and Gina's Anniversary dinner. Pretty busy cat.

We had another enjoyable dinner together this time all a credit to the company as the food was pretty bare bones. After dinner we all headed back to Buckhorn and gathered in the Social Room for a little chin wag.

Mark and Don trying to figure out what the others are up too.

Some kind of high stakes card game in progress.

And I guess it is not surprising that the infernal machines that have brought us all together are in attendance at our evening visiting sessions.

Some of the folks were playing games, others playing with their computers and maybe even chatting with those who couldn't be with us, while the rest of us just told stories and compared notes on subjects of all kinds. To date at this Gathering we have resolved the Auto Crisis, the Banking Crisis, School Issues, Oil Prices, the RV industry issues as well as a few other less critical problems. I can't imagine it will be much longer until both Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper come calling to have us advise them of the way forward.

The Drought is OVER!!

It was looking a little dry around Kerrville when we pulled into the area. Well after yesterday it appears that the drought is over. It rained off and on all night the night before and yesterday the skies opened up and it came down pretty steady all day. The country sure needed it and it was nice to see it happen, but enough already. I guess they probably need more than we had, but WE have had enough.

Yesterday we joined Joe and Sheri on their morning walk and that kept us out of trouble for quite awhile. In fact if you were in the Chat room last night you might think there was a little imagination used in calculating the distance. I think Speedy said we were up to 29 miles yesterday morning, but he wasn't exactly sure. I think we are trying for 30 today, or maybe it was 40. Well it is Texas, you know.

After that long trek Brenda and I headed into town where she found a salon to give her a clip and c...., or something anyway. It sure looks good whatever happened. While she was doing that I had a little exploration around the country and found a route back to the campground that bypassed Kerrville and took me through some pretty country. After she got done we had lunch at the chicken joint near the mall and then headed over to HEB to stock up on the components of Frozen Peanut Butter Pie. That is her contribution to our Breakfast for Dinner meal on Friday night. Now those of you who don't know are in for a taste sensation, and the best part, as my brother Brent figured out, "a calorie is a measure of heat, and if it is frozen, it certainly must be 0." So don't worry about your diets.

Once that was done we came back to the park and hung out. We visited Mark and Dortha in their Phaeton for a while in the afternoon. It certainly is a nice rig and the Tiffin folks have some neat ways of doing things. Brenda did get something special for our new grandbaby, that is due to arrive in June, from Dortha as well.

Wasn't That a Party!!

Today we ran into San Antonio to take a tour around the Riverwalk. When we left Kerrville it was raining lightly but we were soon out of that and into a cloudy but not to cool day around San Antonio. We took a tour on the boats on the Riverwalk and then walked around it all again on foot. As usual there were a lot of tourists around the Alamo but the Riverwalk was relatively unpopulated. Brenda took a look in a few stores but didn't find anything that tickled her fancy so we came home with exactly what we left with the exception of sorer feet.

A couple of pictures of the San Antonio Riverwalk




It is a slow day for the Dreamers although some of the guys were out golfing and their appeared to be an expedition of ladies who were checking the various shops in Kerrville. Seemed to be a lot of bags being hauled out of Sheri's truck when they returned so it must have been a successful venture.

Tonight we are all heading in to Mamacita's for dinner to celebrate Brenda's birthday and also give the cooks a night off. This has been a time of non-stop eating since we got here so those whose culinary talents are up to the challenge have been working overtime. And those of us whose talents lean more towards eating have certainly been doing our part!


A part of the group at Brenda's Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday Honey!!



And here she is with her ill-gotten gains. She has quite an international reputation as a butter bandit.

And of course no birthday party would be complete without embarassing pictures in funny hats.

Well the birthday party was great and one that I am sure Brenda will remember for years, thanks to all you kind folks out there.


Oh by the way Brenda wasn't the only person who had a crack at wearing the hat. The Master of Ceremonies for the event was this old Mexican guy, Speedy Gonzalez, Arriba.....Arriba....LOL





Here is a tree in San Antonio, for those of you stuck in permanent winter the green things are called leaves, when you notice some on the trees around home please give us a call so we will know it is time to head north.