Happy New Year

It just amazes me how quickly the years pass as we get older. We are having a quiet night tonight as we have for many years. We were always up for celebrating, until New Years 1981. We dropped our kids off at my inlaws house for the night and went on our way to celebrate at my brothers house. We stayed out quite late and headed home about 3am. We got a very early phone call, my mother in law had been rushed to the hospital with an asthma attack and passed away. She had been watching our children for the night. She was only 59 years old and the sweetest person you would ever want to meet. Our world changed. New Years has never been the same for us and never will be. We downplay it all now and we are lucky to have our grandkids with us. Our night was spent with them, playing uno, eating popcorn and brownies. The diets start tomorrow...
In reflecting on this past year, we have enjoyed our travels. We started the year off with a cruise. It was #26 for us, I think. Spring brought us to Florida, we spent a fun week with our son and his family in Orlando. April while reading rv.net website I found a notation that sent me in the direction of RV-Dreams. Everything has changed since then. I spent days reading every post by Howard on their lifestyle. I started my own dreams. I talked to my husband Kevin about us perhaps attending the rally in Branson, Mo. in June and he agreed. We met up with so many great people and listened to the travels of so many. It truly made an impact on me. I was taught how to chat with fellow dreamers and now do so most nights with my new found family of dreamers. Thanks to all of you. I am now addicted to reading blogs and chatting.
September brought us back to Florida for a weeks vacation that turned into much more due to the hurricane back home in Texas. How lucky we were to be in sunny Fl instead of home without power. We also lucked out without much damage.
October we headed to Topsail Hill Preserve in Santa Rosa Beach Fl to workcamp for the month.
Out time there was cut short due to our daughters illness back home. The next month was spent at home with her. Luckily she is on the mend.
Finally to end off the year, we took a final roadtrip. Destination Las Vegas.. I fell in love with Arizona and now know I want to spend more time there in the future.
We feel very blessed. We have had both our children, their spouses and our 5 grandchildren with us for Christmas. Nothing can beat spending time with family. I am now exhausted but it was well worth it.
We wish for all of you a Very Happy Healthy New Year!! Happy Travels..

Our Hands Are Full

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our dear friends. We are very blessed this year to share this holiday with both our children and their families.
May you all share the joy of this beautiful holiday season with someone special...
Kevin and Arlene

Quiet Week with Snow

Well, this has been a fairly quiet week here. I got caught up on all that needs done. I also got my Christmas decorations and tree up. Tuesday was in the 70's when we got up and by afternoon had gone down to low 30's. brrrr! While I was decorating the tree, with Christmas music on, I looked outside and it was snowing.. Well, it was just flurries but very pretty and it couldnt have come at a better time. It didn't last long but at least I got to enjoy the ambiance for a bit. We had a few more that evening. We are not used to that cold weather, and it comes as a shock when we get it. One of the reasons we moved out of Massachusetts in 2000. Temps are back up again here and suppose to be 68.
I went back to work at the golf course on Thursday for 4.5 hrs. It isnt very crowded this time of year. Today I will work 1-5p and again don't think I will be very busy. It will continue like this for the winter. Doesnt pick up until spring. It was a nice surprise to get a Christmas bonus that I wasnt expecting. We have a party for our club only, Wednesday night at the Main Event. I guess its bowling and beer and hot dogs. Then on Sunday we have another one at a sister course in The Woodlands for a dinner. Should be fun.
I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping. I have a few small things still left. I havent wrapped or written my cards yet so maybe tomorrow. I am behind on that.
See you chat friends tonight.

Home Safely

We arrived home about 1:30 today and without any more blowouts! Yeah. I sure was stressed driving without a spare tire. We will get the tt into the dealer and have all the tires checked out.
We have a few other issues to take care of also. Other than the mishaps on the road, the trip was alot of fun.
I got the laundry going, put a few other things away and spent some time with the grandkids.
My daughter has been home alot and bored so she asked if I would go out to get a bite to eat with her. So off we went with two of the boys to Applebees. We left Kevin stretched out on the couch watching football. Her husband and one of the boys are in Chicago visiting with family.
Tomorrow I will tackle decorating the house for Christmas. At least start to do it. I love my Christmas "stuff" and look forward to getting it out, it has so many memories.

What A Day

The drill sargeant had me up again and pulling out about 6am. All was well until we ran out of gas... We had 5 miles to the next station, but didnt make it. We have been filling the tank at half full but this was a long stretch of nothing on the highway. We went into one station but they were closed so were keeping our fingers crossed that we would make it to the next stop. Well, we didn't. Called AAA and they sent someone after 45 min. They gave us 7 gallons and we stopped at the next stop to fill up. Our fault on this one.. About an hour later we hear a loud thump. Stopped to check things out and guess what, another blowout on the tt, this time on the passenger side. Called AAA again and after 1hr they sent the same guy to fix it. We now have no spare. We only had about 80 miles to get to Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, where we had decided to stay for the night. We finally made it here.. This is the place some of us RV Dreamers are going to gather in March. I walked around the park and took some pictures. Below are just a few. The site we will have has the coach in it now and the one next to it that is empty will be Jenny's. This is a really nice RV Park and I am looking forward to spending two weeks here in the spring. Hopefully I can get Kevin to continue with this type of travel after two blowouts, a blown wheel bearing and running out of gas, for this trip. For now, we are relaxing and watching football.

Buckhorn Lake Resort at Kerrville Tx

Leaving Vegas and Broken Down

We enjoyed one last meal in Las Vegas. We had two coupons for a buffet meal at the Stratosphere so we headed there after checking out of the Hilton Grand Vacation Club at the Flamingo. I really wasnt expecting much but to my surprise, it was delicious. After finishing up, we drove back to the tt, cleaned up, hooked up, and were on our way. About 1oo miles into the trip, Kevin noticed smoke coming from the driver side of the trailer. He pulled onto the shoulder, got out and saw not only smoke but something melted all over the tire. We had passed a truck stop about 5 miles back so we continued to the next exit and drove back to it. Luckily it was open and one of the mechanics came out and told us we had blown a wheel bearing. He had us unhoook,took it off, made a few calls, and sent us to auto zone to pick up the parts we needed. Once back, he proceeded to replace it. We lost 3 hours, but are so thankful that we were close enough to have it repaired. He told us, had we continued to drive we probably would have lost the wheel. Scary... Someone what looking out for us. I wanted to stop at a nearby campground for the night but Kevin wanted to continue driving and driving we did. We continued for several hours and stopped in Surprise, Az at a Walmart parking lot for the night. Well, part of a night, as we were off and rolling at 4:30am! Today was a very long day. We drove about 600 miles and stopped in Van Horn, Tx for the night. We will be drifting off shortly.. Tomorrow we hope to stop around San Antonio and hook up to watch some FOOTBALL..

Walking and Eating Our Way Thru Vegas

Oh boy, are we tired. We have spent three straight days touring alot of the hotels here in Vegas.
I can't even remember what day we did what, they all run together. Tuesday evening we had dinner at Ellis Island. I had read reviews of the restaurant on Tripadvisor and wanted to try it.
We both had the shrimp and steak dinner for $10.95. It was very good. We gambled a little there and then headed back to the hotel. Chatted for a while. Yesterday was Kevins 60th birthday. We once again had a full day. We visited Planet Hollywood, this is a new one for us.
We loved the atmosphere at this casino but didnt have much luck. They have Earl of Sandwich, which we always visit in Dowtown Disney while in Orlando, we love their food so had a breakfast sandwich. We bought the bus pass and travelled around the strip. Kevin wanted italian food for his birthday dinner so we headed to Battista's and had a great veal parm dinner. Some more casino play and then back to the hotel. I tried getting on chat but got kicked off a few times.
Today we went to TT campground to check on the trailer. All was okay there. We then headed to Ethel M Chocolate Factory. We walked thru the tour but there was nothing really happening today. Had a few samples of candy, did a little shopping for the gkids in the m&m store. We had been given coupons for the dinner buffet at the Wynn. I have wanted to see this hotel so we took the bus down there late afternoon. It is simply beautiful. I lost playing black jack right away. It was the first bad day I had since we have been here. Kevin on the other hand did pretty good. It was the first day he came out ahead. We went to the dinner buffet with our coupons worth $33 each and boy oh boy what a dinner. Our favorites were the large cracked crab legs, yum. The shrimp were huge and delicious and just about everything else you could think of. Of course we ate too much. Back to the tables for a little more black jack. This time, I won back the money I lost earlier. I played slots here for quite a while but didnt come out ahead. Had a great time though and just loved this hotel. Again boarded the bus back to our hotel.
We have had a great time but I think I am just about over Vegas and the casino scene. We have been at it for six days now. That is too long for Vegas. We have walked our feet off as anyone who has been to Vegas understands. Everything is just so spread out that is takes forever to get anywhere. Even taking the bus, when you get off you have to walk such a distance to get to a hotel. I'm sure the exercise was good for us after eating those great meals. We did stick to just one big meal a day though. We still have two free buffet meals left for the Stratosphere so we may just hop the bus in the morning and head for breakfast. I also think we will check out tomorrow a day early and head back to the rv park and get packed up to leave early Friday morning. We have a long drive ahead.....