In Texas again

We got up early this morning and headed toward Houston. We always like driving through there on Sunday not really thinking there was a home football game. I'd looked it up earlier in the month but I was checking for next Sunday cause that was our plan date to go through there but when we changed our plans for a week early I forgot to check on it again. We saw the signs about football traffic and realized we were heading right into it but they either had a small crowd or we were ahead of the crowd cause we got through pretty easily. I'd never driven through Houston myself before but I thought it went pretty smoothly. We are in Victoria, TX for the night and we'll get into Mission and our park tomorrow. We've been on the road for over 6 months and it's time to take it easy for a few months and by take it easy I mean get back on my Leisure schedule where most everyday has something scheduled to do. There's never a dull time there that's for sure.

Happy Anniversary Baby

Yesterday was our 29th anniversary and I didn't feel good so I didn't get on the computer very often. I had a sinus headache and didn't feel like focusing my eyes much. Since next September is a milestone birthday for me it will also be our 30th wedding anniversary so I plan to party all yr anyway. Nothing wrong with that is there. Anyway, we celebrated early by getting the new car and it's been a dream to drive. I've put more miles on it that Reid has so it's all good. I always said back in the 80's and 90's that I would want a new one with the old body style never thinking they would remake them years later. Back in those days Reid was always under the hood trying to make them go faster...I didn't want one that he was going to be "working on" all the time. I believe he's has 6 over the yrs in various drivable stages.
Anyway, Happy Anniversay again Reid..It's been and still is "A FUN TRIP". Here's working on our next 30 + years!!!

We've been traveling

We left Gulf Shores on Monday. We're taking our time getting to TX. One of the reasons is because I'm driving the Challenger (yeah for me) but I also get very sleepy when I drive/ride so we have to do short days. The other reason is we don't have to be in a hurry to get there. Our first stop was in Bay St Louis, MS. Reid wanted to take the car and cruise the beach, Hwy 90 runs right by the coast so it was fun. So far I've driven 400 miles and managed to stay awake!!! Today we drove as far as Kinder LA, We'll be here a few days since I need a break after the long five hrs today. (golf starts on TV tomorrow and Reid will be watching it.) Our next stop will be in Victoria but that's just for over night and after that we'll be back at Leisure Valley for the winter.

Bye Bye Tigger !

A sad day today . Tigger, our travelin cat died. We knew it was coming but it's still sad to have to go through it. Tigger has been a family pet for 14 1/2 years. Stephaine got him when she was about 11 years old and once she left for the Air Force he became ours. He's traveled with us for the past three and a half years and for the most part he was a good traveler. He'd lost weight over the summer but today was still a shock when we had to take him to the vet. I know he had a good life so that's comforting but it's still hard to think about it.

Seafood, Crusin and Sports

I can think of nothing better. We've enjoyed this week in Gulf Shores. It hasn't rained and that's been a rare week for us this summer. We're checked out our favorite places to eat. We took the car up and down the coast and I've been watching football and baseball.. can't asked for much more can I.
I wasn't going to say anything till Reid did but I can't wait him out any longer..He's been wanting something and he finally found just the right one so we went and got it on Wed. He or we now own a Challenger..he's had several of them back in the 70's 80's and 90's and since the new ones came out he's been drooling, debating and deciding on one and he finally threw caution to the wind and got it. Now he bought it here (or in FL) cause they had the one he wanted in the color he wanted (you can't find black autos in south Texas) so I'm driving it to TX..cool right..if I can just stay awake cause we all know when I travel I get real sleepy. But have caffeine will travel. We want go back quickly and we'll get early starts in the mornings so I should be fine..I think I'll have fun driving that car to TX.

Checking our Foley AL and Gulf Shores

The cities of Foley and Gulf Shores run together. Gulf Shores is on the beach where Foley is west of the beach..We were here in late March till late April when the spill happened and even though we left before any oil made it this far we've heard things about the area and we wanted to see for ourselves if it was affected. We're gonna be checking out the area so we'll pass along any news. So far the air smells great..we'd heard that it smelled really oily here back in the summer and if it did then it's all better now. We didn't smell anything this afternoon and we sat outside and watched the Braves play ball (they won!!!)
Later in the week we'll check out some of our favorite seafood places (ok probally start on that tomorrow) and see how those places are doing. Traffic was a little lite when we arrived in town but it's off season for tourist and the winter crowd wont get here till Oct so they are in their "off season this month.

Back to one of our favorite areas

Today was travel day.. I've said that alot over the last few weeks. But our traveling summer is just about over..We decided to head south east (I think that's right) and go to Gulf Shores one more time this yr. We really like this area and we could see ourselves wintering here if the temps were warmer all winter long.
Today was our longest travel day of the season. We don't usually go over 300 miles (and we've gotten use to not doing long days) so when today rolled around I wasn't looking forward to a long day and Lady and I didn't handle it too well. We were restless all day..I couldn't get comfortable and I don't know why and Lady decided she needed a rest stop and there was no place to pull off for several miles so she whinned and I kept saying "how much farther". It wasn't a bad drive it's just been awhile since we've done it but I didn't want to do two short days so it was just better to get it over with. and we did with no problems.
Our very good friends Jean and Tim have a rental lot here and since they weren't using it and it's not rented this month we decided to use it. we plan to be here till the end of Sept./first of Oct time frame. We're going to be having some high 80days and low 70's nights and that's not too bad. (we're use to it, it's been 90 degrees plus our whole summer)

Happy Birthday to me....yesterday

Now everyone knows something is wrong when I don't blog to myself on my birthday so I'll explain...I woke up feeling great...I prompted Reid to sing happy birthday to me...only because he was busy working but I wanted him to say it first before anyone else called to sing..I was sooo happy to get 14 emails, calls and texts..two of those emails were from Famous D's and my Mary K lady but that still counts..I went walking, riding and took Lady for a walk then after showers and once Reid finished working we went eat at a restaurant of my choosing..all was great. About 3ish I started getting chills and a fever..So odd..(I'd ran a low fever on Wed evening but when I woke up on Thurs I felt fine) by 6ish I was on the sofa wrapped up in a blanket (it's 90 degrees outside and I'm shivering) My fever finally broke sometime about 3am cause I woke up so hot...and miserable..so I took more meds and fell back to sleep till 10am..Today I've kept a headache and slept alot but I've felt really wore out. Don't know what caused it or if it's over yet but Reid said I "willed" myself to feel good the first part of my birthday...But one day isn't going to stop me this is my last yr in my 40's so I'm celebrating all year...
We're in MS now. Our plans to stop at Natchez Trace fell through cause they were calling for rain all week and when Reid drove through the lakeside sites were taken. We didn't want to stay there without a lake front site and possible rain for a week or two..Now we're here waiting on our mail and once that's comes in we'll decide where to head next.. As everyone knows we're making our way to TX and we'll be there probally early Oct

Labor Day

Labor Day means an end to our weekend. Monday morning I met the kids over at the Inn for breakfast with their Granny and Aunt Con. It was sad cause we were going our seperate ways after breakfast. But I don't want to be a downer so I'll remember the fun weekend and even though I got blamed for some car Toilet Papering that I didn't do (wish I'd thought about it...and I'll admit I might have help in yrs past) this go around wasn't me...but I think I know who did it...It was a fun time.
Everyone got home safely (there was approx 50 people at this weekend party.) I got to see three of my "greats" and met my neices' new husband.
We headed south once we left. I know what all you from the North are saying...why so early...but since we were in souther IN we didn't want to back track north so we headed to west Tenn. Our plans are to stay one night at this RV park that we need to rate and then head over to the state park..Reid is not letting me "plan" any more of this summer's travels so where we go and when we go will be up to Reid..I have a feeling we'll be back in TX before Oct 11.
This park we're rating was one that we visited yrs ago and it got a very poor rating but the new owners contacted us and since they've made improvements they wanted us to re review it again so since it's on the way we agreed to stop it..They've done wonders to the place.
Once I know when we're heading to TX I'll let everyone know.

The other part....

The other part of my fun weekend was having both Danny and Stephanie with us for the weekend. All I can say is the weekend went too fast.
Steph drove up from GA on Thurs. She had about a 10 hr drive. We visited and talked and did fun stuff. On Friday while waiting for Danny to arrive we drove into Bloomington to get a couple of things for the Birthday Girls. Danny arrived about 5ish and we grilled out steaks with them on Friday evening. Aunt Con and a few others arrived during the day on Friday so we visited with them. On Saturday the four of us went into Mitchell for lunch.. We weren't sure what food places were there but we had to find out. We found the small pizza place with only a few tables and no customers at noon so we're thinking why! is it empty at lunch time..Well we stayed and ordered and it was very good. All four of us enjoyed what we ordered so it was worth the try. Reid's Mom, brother, sister, sister in law, neices and nephews were going to be showing up over the next several hours so we stayed at the inn waiting for them. The Inn is beautiful with a cirle drive and rockers on the front porch so we rocked and waited, laughed and talked. Saturday night it was back to town for mexican food with about 15family members and again the food was really good. The funny part was having the waiter try and put a sombrero on two 80 yr old women.. They were having none if it.
After we have breakfast tomorrow morning we'll be heading out on our seperate ways, Steph heading back to GA and Danny going to East TN while Reid and I head south. I've had a great time this weekend and hopefully their schedules will allow for a visit to TX around the holidays.

Happy Birthday Mom and Aunt Con

Oh what a weekend. Some of the family starting arriving Friday afternoon and the rest arrived on Saturday. We've had a blast celebrating the birthdays of the 80 yr old twins and it's been great catching up with everyone. Several of us went into town on Sat night for Mexican food while others stayed in and rested up from their drive. Today was the party day. We had a buffet lunch for the birthday girls and along with gift openings and cake.. gotta have cake. Mom and Con were smiling all weekend so we know they had a great time.

Spring Mill State Park

We traveled over to Mitchell IN today. It was a short trip. We're getting use to short travel days. this is our Birthday weekend get together. About two hours after we arrived Steph arrived. She had her leave approved so she decided to head on up from GA a day early. Danny had to work today but he's driving up tomorrow. (I say up cause they are in the south you know). I love having my kids together even if it's only for a couple of days.
We're going to grill out tomorrow night if it doesn't rain..Some more of the family is coming in tomorrow.
Mom will arrive on Sat so we're looking forward to seeing her too. It's her weekend. She'll be 80..for those who's met her she doesn't look or act 80 does she. We have a party planned on Sunday so it's going to be a weekend party...In fact theres so many birthdays this weekend I can't even talk about mine till after Monday.. I know of four birthdays between now and Monday and mine's not untill Thurs..
We're staying at the RV park (of course) but everyone else is staying at the Inn. This is a nice park and plenty to do.
I must be quiet now Steph is asleep..she left GA about 4:30 this morning and drove about 11 hours. I'm surprised she stayed awake this long.
**I doubt anyone will try to call us this weekend but our phone reception is pretty bad so just keep trying if you need to talk to us**

What September means

When I think of September I think of my birthday...yeah..but I also think of fall weather, football games and the beginning of our winter season.
Tomorrow we are leaving for a state park in IN for a birthday bash. Reid's Mom's birthday is Sunday so we're getting together for it. Both my kids are coming up for this and I'm so excited about that too. Steph will be arriving tomorrow afternoon and Danny on Friday. It should be a fun weekend.
After this weekend I don't know what's up.. Reid want let me make plans cause the entire summer has been scheduled and he tired of being on a schedule. So the next 6 weeks or so we are just heading south and who knows where our stops will lead. Our plans have been to get back to Tx around mid Oct so we're on "schedule" to do that..oh there's that word again.
I'll keep you posted and all those heading to TX (and there's a bunch of you) see you soon. I know we're going to have a fun winter.