YEEHAW AND HAPPY HOUR

SAT. NOV. 29-It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. I worked on our Christmas Letter. I do a recount of our past years travel. I try to write about the interesting stories of places we visited, things we did and people we met.

I am somewhat artsy so I add some doodles along the page margin that corresponds with the story. I enjoy doing the Christmas Letter and get a lot of fun feedback. The only thing, it is 2 pages and that includes front and back. I try to shorten it but I can't. As it is, I could not put everything in it so a lot ended up on the "cutting room floor" as they say.

Ralph and I washed the Beast! Our Dodge Dually pick up. It was long over due. I spent time doing the door jams and wiping down the inside of the doors and dashboard.

We walked around the resort visiting our friends. and then headed to the clubhouse where the owners, Greg, Gina and their children Kristen and Cole were putting up Christmas decorations through out the clubhouse.

YEEHAW and HOWDY from Texas: Years ago Ralph and George Barbour built these rocking horses for a rodeo. Greg added the saddles and they now stay on the clubhouse porch. So Ralph and I decided to take a quick ride.

In the afternoon our friends Corine and Kent from Alaska and also "full timers", had a Happy Hour. Everyone brings orderv's to share and their choice of drink.When someone hosts a Happy Hour, it is usually at 4pm and when everyone becomes so "happy"it can go into the night as this one did. We had a wonderful time eating, drinking and chatting.

Corine is also a gourmet cook and over the years I have called her many times with questions on "this and that" when it comes to cooking. She always has the answers and gives me pointers and great information. I call her my "Chef in the Phone".

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all our wonderful friends and family. I am so thankful for so many things and most everyday I set a few seconds aside to thank God for my life and health.

This is by far my favorite holiday because eating is one of my most favorite things to do. I love food, I even dream about it and when I lay in bed at night, I think of the new recipe I am going to try the next day.

I got up early and made sweet potato casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, fresh cranberry, pumpkin pie and homemade whipped cream.

We left late morning and headed to Gary's home in Bandera just 18 miles away. Gary already had picked up mom up at the nursing home and they were there when we arrived.

We had a wonderful visit and pulled out old family albums. Mom unfortunately did not recognize early pictures of herself, her husband or children when they were little but she seemed to enjoy looking through the album and it brought back memories for all.

Gary is a real good cook. The turkey was in the oven, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans with ham on the stove and stuffing and homemade rolls in the oven.

Dave arrived with his mothers recipe of lima beans and dumplings. Dave is a single fella who lives here in Bandera. He is one of Gary's motorcycle riding buddies and he has a shop there  in town. He is a wood carver and furniture builder and does beautiful work. Last year we had a table made by another man who told us about Dave's carvings. Dave gave us some ideas and we picked out a design of a stage coach being pulled by a team of horses. Although the picture does not show it, it is very detailed and quite on eye catcher. The edge of the table is surrounded by wooden lariat roping and we keep lexan over the table for protection. This really added a nice touch to our Rolling Ranch House.

We sat down and enjoyed this delicious Thanksgiving dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly and mom sure did eat her share. But 10 min. later after the dishes were removed, Gary asked her what she had for dinner and she had no clue. Yet she chatted and remembered many of her stories from long ago.We had heard these same stories over the years and when she repeated them, they were exactly the same. She did not forget any details.

Gary has a herd of deer that come to his yard every day. The deer in this part of Texas are small because of the type of forage here and only come up to your waist. When the deer hear the sound of his garage door opening they come running. They know Gary is going to feed them. He throws deer feed on the ground and he hand feeds them flour tortillas. He can even pet a couple of them and has names for them all.

By late afternoon we took mom back to Town and Country Manor.She refers to T&C as the condo because she lived in one for 7 years before coming to T&C. She still believes she is working. I guess so, because she worked up until age 83 and she is now 87. For many of her years she had always worked 2 jobs.

It is always a little sad when we bring her back. She always says goodbye with a big hug and kiss.

Happy Trails until we blog again!

CLUBHOUSE BREAKFAST AND WILDLIFE ENTERTAINMENT

It was a nice morning to wake up to. The sounds of a slow steady rain with a little rolling thunder in the distance is one of my favorite sounds. Unfortunately, it was short lived and I could not enjoy it. w

We had signed up for the Saturday breakfast at the clubhouse. Every other Saturday, the owners of the RV Resort and ranch, Gina and Greg fix us this wonderful breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, juice and coffee all for a small donation.

We had time to have a cup of coffee at home and listen to the rain. 

We also enjoyed an abundance of wildlife entertainment this morning. It is rutting season and the bucks are quite frisky and the does are running for their lives.

It is comical too, all of a sudden you see several does running through the campsites and several seconds later here comes the buck. Poor thing looked pretty winded. This buck stopped for a breather, then sniffed the air and he is off again.

I throw scraps of veggies and apple cores outside for the deer. The deer are always close by to our front yard and when they hear me open the door and the sounds of things hitting the ground, they come running. They know there are treats for them.

Ralph and I have been busy since we arrived 3 weeks ago. Between annual Dr. visits and spending time with mom, we have not had a chance to visit all our friends here.

The breakfast allows everyone to get together and catch up. There is nothing but camaraderie and laughter at the tables.

We feel so blessed to have these wonderful folks in our lives.

As you can see from the pictures, the clubhouse is quite spacious. It has a very nice kitchen and room enough for well over 100 people. They hold potlucks here as well as wonderful holiday dinners.

There are games each night too. I use to come up and play, but here lately I am usually catching up on our travel blog and I am also busy putting this years Christmas letter together.

Until next time, Happy Trails....................

PICTURES OF OUR EARLIER ADVENTURES

Here are several pictures from our adventure earlier this year.

We stayed a several days in Lake Havasu, AZ. We stayed at a nice state park and this was the view from our front yard. Every evening we had a beautiful sunset.

Lake Havasu is a reservoir and its water comes from Colorado River. The lake is 45 miles long.

For a $3 round trip ticket we took a 17 minute ferry boat ride across the lake to California. It drops you off at the Havasu Landing Casino that is owned by Native Americans.

You can see the California shore off in the distance.

Since we don't gamble we walked a couple of blocks and had lunch at a cute little restaurant.



Here was our front yard in Lemon Cove, CA. It was a Corps of Engineer Park. We stayed here while visiting Sequoia National Park.

We were mostly by ourselves at Lake Kaweah Horse Creek Campground and look at this view we had with Lake Kaweah.

Sequoia NP is a bit over 404,000 acres. The park is famous for its giant sequoia trees.

We got to see the General Sherman. It is among the tallest trees at 275 ft. a width of more than 100 ft. and an estimated age of 2,300 to 2,700 years old. It does hold the record of being the largest tree by volume.

Here we are relaxing looking out over Morro Bay along the coast of California. Morro Rock as you can see in the picture is a 581 ft. volcanic rock. It sits at the entrance of Morro Bay Harbor. It was so peaceful. We enjoyed the afternoon watching otters and seals frolicking in the water.

Ralph looking out over the Pacific Ocean in the town Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. This quaint town is where Clint Eastwood was once Mayor. The town is full of quaint shops, restaurants, cafes, boutiques, candy shops, bakeries and jewelry stores.

More travel pictures to come. Happy Trails..................

CATCHING UP WITH DR. VISITS, MOM AND SOME R & R

For the past week we have been doing our annual doctor visits. All is well so far and just the eye doctor and dentist left to do.

We had some nice visits with mom at the nursing home. Town and Country Manor had their Thanksgiving feast for the residents and their families.  Besides a delicious meal, the dining room was beautifully decorated. We were having a nice time and I was doing my favorite pastime "eating" so unfortunately I forgot to take pictures!

Mom is 87 and has now been in the nursing home for 1 year and 8 months. She has adapted fairly well with just a few issues that comes with having Dementia. It is still hard to fathom that someone as vibrant and physically and mentally active as she was, got this dreaded disease.

After dinner they had 2 talented ladies that played for the residents. My favorite musical instruments are the harp and the bag pipes. Both these ladies gave a wonderful concert.

This is a heck of a parallel parking job that Ralph did. Of course I was helping him letting him know how many inches he had.

A few of the evenings at the ranch-resort, Ralph made a cozy fire. We invited several of the Winter Texans over and everyone reminisce of their past years travel adventures.

We like to sleep in most mornings. What a wonderful feeling it is to wake up and smell the aroma of coffee brewing. Usually we have our first cup in bed, but this morning I heard some rummaging around in the kitchen and a short while later, here came Ralph bringing breakfast to bed. I loved the veggie and ham omelet. What a wonderful morning.

One thing about Ralph, he knows his way around the kitchen. He especially does a wonderful job cooking breakfast.

There are literally hundreds of deer here on the ranch. This buck may look like a good size but their shoulder comes up to our waist. I photographed this buck through our window.




















Sometimes heading out the ranch road, you encounter some horse and cattle traffic. We enjoyed watching this calf getting a drink from mom.

One of the ranches horses soaking up some warm Texas sunshine.

There is plenty of cactus and fertilizer here on the ranch.

BUNKO and LONGHORNS

On Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014 we headed to our friends ranch just a little over an hour away from the RV resort. Tonight is "Bunko".

Hoppy and Loy have a ranch south of San Antonio and they raise longhorns. Part of the winter we haul our rolling ranch house and stay on their "Back 40". We will be here sometime in early December.

While we are in the area, I am a "Substitute" when one of the regular players can't make it. For the most part, they usually need me every month. I am happy to play because it is an easy game with dice and it requires no thinking or skill and best of all you enjoy a fabulous meal!

There are 12 players and each month it is at a different players home. They all live in the very small town of Somerset. The hosting player makes dinner and dessert for all to enjoy.

Everyone throws $5 in and if you are the big winner you get money, if you have the most Bunko's you get money and even the person who had the least amount of wins gets a little money. It is a lot of fun and most of all, there is the camaraderie.

I did not win anything this time, but it sure was nice seeing everyone. I had sent Loy postcards every month while we were traveling so she could share them with the Bunko Gang. They really enjoyed hearing from us and seeing where we were at.

Here is a cute little longhorn calve and it is about 5 days old in this picture.

A few years ago, we were staying here at Hoppy and Loy's ranch. We had a corner on the "Back 40" roped off with electric wire. The fence charger was old and it failed in the middle of the night.

About 3 a.m. Ralph woke up to the trailer rocking. We jumped out of bed and the herd of Longhorns were all around our RV rubbing on it. So there we were in our PJ's herding longhorns back into their own pasture. We put the electric fence back up and the morning Ralph went to the farm store to get a new fence charger and we never had anymore roundups.

Here are pictures from our past travels this year. These 3 pictures are when we visited San Francisco back in June. We stopped at Fisherman's Wharf. We checked out the numerous restaurants on the pier and decided on this cozy one. We had a fabulous seafood dinner and the service was tops. We had a wonderful view from our table and we were treated to a group of sea lions swimming as others relaxed on the docks.

Our RV was parked across the bay and each day we would ride our bikes from the RV park to the Ferry. We would put our bikes on the Ferry along with many other biking commuters. It was an experience and lots of fun.

It was a good thing we had our bikes because the Public Transportation was on a "Sick Out" that week. There were several attractions we could not see because of this, but we still saw a lot on our bikes.

Here I am on a cloudy and misty day with Alcatraz Island in the background.

Happy Trails, until next time............................

RELAXING AND CATCHING UP

Our first week at Lake Medina RV Resort/Leibolds-Grothues Ranch was getting lots of hugs from the "Winter Texans" that were already here at the resort. The other southern states would call us "Snowbirds", but here in Texas the locals refer to us as "Winter Texans."

Ralph already had one of his Dr. appointments, just for his yearly blood work check up. As you see here in this picture Ralph is enjoying a drink the evening before his blood work.

His doctor is over in Boerne, TX. Boerne is a nice quaint town with a lovely main street that is full of unique shops and cafes. They have lots of functions in town all year long.

During Christmas, the town becomes a Dickens Village with a parade along with carolers, street performers, Santa Clause, horse drawn carriages and actors portraying Dickens characters. You feel like you are in a Charles Dickens story.

Ralph's mom is just a few blocks up on Main St. in the nursing home. She has adapted well and has been here for about 20 months. We stopped there to see her after Ralph's Dr. appt. It has been 8 months since we saw her last. We walked down the hall and she was coming out of her room. She looked up at us and said hi. It took her a bit, but I think she recognized us somewhat.

We headed to the dining room and had a nice visit. Talking to her you would not think she had dementia, she can carry on a conversation very well. Her stories keep us amused.



I showed her all the pictures and video that I had taken on my iPhone as we traveled over the last 8 months. She really enjoyed them. The best part of having a smart phone is that I was able to take pictures and video of her and did a "Selfie" of us and sent it to her grandchildren. In a short time they responded with their "Selfie's". It was a lot of fun and she seemed to really enjoy seeing this new fangled technology.




Greg and Gina Grouthes, owners of the park along with Greg's mom Marlene Leibolds-Grothues, had a wonderful "Welcome Back Winter Texans" brunch for the resort. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone. We all shared our traveling adventures from this past year.

I spent one day ordering things that we needed. As we traveled this past year, we weren't in any one place long enough to wait for something to be delivered. We never have problems sending for our mail because that comes in a timely manner. But when you order something, sometimes it may take a while and this stuff certainly wasn't something we needed right away.

I ordered new seat covers for our truck. The old set did not fair well coming through the last wash cycle. The new ones will be waterproof but they have to be made and that will take a couple of weeks.

I ordered a large picture of Sam Elliott. It is a drawing of him in his cowboy attire holding a rifle. Our door has a glass pane and I will put it on the inside so it will look like Sam is greeting everyone when they come to visit. As many of you know, our rolling ranch house is decorated with Cowboy and Native American decor. Sam Elliott is my all time favorite "cutie patootie". I often said that I want his voice on my GPS, but then I thought I could not concentrate on my driving. At least he is on my iPhone. I took this picture off my computer.

I also ordered a Dash Cam. There are a lot of dangerous drivers out there and they seem to like cutting in front of people hauling heavy things. I really feel for the tractor trailer drivers out there. Some driver's, due to their negligence and ignorance don't have the common sense and realize that we can't stop on a dime.  So at least this will afford us some kind of protection.

My last items were ordering tapes for my video recorder and a camera card for my still camera. I took lots of video over the past 8 months. I have several camera cards that are filled with pictures over the last several years. I can't seem to delete them and then use this newly emptied camera card over again. So I keep buying camera cards. Don't let Janna know. She is the one that set me up and taught me how to do this blog website when we visited their Montana ranch a couple of months ago. She has been after me to "delete" the card once I have put the pictures in Picasa. For some reason I can't make myself do that, at least not right now.

One evening we were invited over to our friend's Tom and Mary. They are from Texas and years ago they bought property just outside the resort. They bought a small towable RV and brought it to this resort because it was close to their property. Their plans were to live here while their home was being built. Well they ended up seeing this whole other life called "Full Timing". They saw the fun us full timing folks were having and said the "heck with a house". They soon sold their lot and bought themselves a beauty of a Motor Home and hit the road loving life. Like us, they come back to the resort most every winter.

Periodically, I will put pictures up from the past. This was our front yard when we were in Lemon Cove, CA. near Sequioa National Park back in April of this year. It was a Corps Of Engineer Park. The Ranger who was assigned to that area, begged us to become "work campers" there. We thanked him but quickly said, "There are 2 words in our vocabulary that we no longer say and they are WORK and SNOW!"

Until next time, Happy Trails...................

WE ARRIVED AT OUR WINTER HOME

After we paid our respects to Ofc. J.D. Tippit's Memorial, we headed for San Antonio where we will spend most of the winter.

From where Ralph's competition was in English, TX. to San Antonio, it is about 450 miles. There is no reason for us to drive that many miles in a day. So by afternoon we pulled into a Cracker Barrel in Buda, TX. Most Cracker Barrels have parking for RV's and allow you to stay overnight. We patronize them either by having dinner or breakfast there. We have always enjoyed Cracker Barrels, especially in the winter when they have their warm and cozy fire going.

Tuesday morning, Nov. 4th, we headed a short distance to New Braunfels, where we stop at one of my favorite convenience stores. "Bu-cees" is a super-duper convenience store-fuel station on steroids! It is known as the ultimate travel pit stop.

They are known for their deli where they have brisket, pulled pork and other kinds of smoked meats. They have a huge coffee bar and a bakery that makes the famous kolaches. We got a couple of  kolaches, stuffed with sausage, jalapeno and cheese. Besides our coffee, we got a pound of brisket for our dinner. They have a huge and awesome gift shop that included everything from clothing to home decor. They make their own fudge and jerky. They have their own branded merchandise of spices, preserves, hot sauces and condiments. They are very well known and take pride for their spotless and gorgeous bathrooms, so clean you could eat of the floor! When I visit one, I still look like a "deer in the headlights" when I walk in. The employees couldn't be more helpful or courteous.

By afternoon we were pulling into Lake Medina RV Resort in Lakehills, TX. It is a wonderful resort and we have been coming here for several winters.

The resort is actually on a real historical working ranch that has been in the same family since the 1880's and it borders Lake Medina. The ranch is known as The Leibolds-Grothues Ranch. Unfortunately this area of Texas has been in a severe drought for the last few years and it has just about dried up this lake. The lake is 18 miles long but with a good hurricane forced rain, it will come back. It has done so in the past.







Here you can see the steps and railing and to think the water came right up to it. From here to the bottom of the river I am guessing is about 20 feet. You can see what is a little stream below and the trees have now taken over the river bottom. Looking across you can see a few concrete boat ramps.



Over the last 8 months we have been "gallivanting" through out the west and north west of our beautiful country. It was exciting and we loved it.

But now we are looking forward to a little bit of relaxation, but by the end of winter we will get a case of "HITCH ITCH" and get on the road again. For now though it will be nice to let the grass grow "UNDER" our feet. This also gives us time to get our yearly Dr. and dentist check ups out of the way.

Since we won't be doing a lot of sight seeing around San Antonio because is not new to us any longer, I will periodically put some photos of our past travels.

Here is one of them. As you know we left Texas in March of this year and slowly made our way to the California coast. Along the way I bought an iPhone. I never thought I was smart enough to have a smart phone, but it turns out I am not as stupid as I thought I was and I am doing alright with it and actually having a blast with it. It has come in handy in more times that I can count. I am sorry I did not get one sooner.

Here I am taking "MY FIRST SELFIE". We visited San Francisco and I rode my bicycle over the World Famous Golden Gate Bridge. It was a thrill. Ralph stayed in the warm and cozy cafe hut at the entrance of the GGB because it was a cold, cloudy,misty and a windy day.

Until next time, Happy Trails.................

LEAVING BAR 3 RANCH AND PAYING OUR RESPECTS TO OFC. J.D. TIPPIT

We left the ranch the morning of Mon. Nov. 3. The ranch was empty. T-Bone headed to work at his gun shop and the only one to say goodbye to us was Dooley the Ranch dog. We gave him a treat and a pat on the head and hit the trail.

Not far from the ranch is the town of Clarksville. Just south of Clarksville, along RT. 37 is a Texas State Memorial Marker. It is honoring the Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit. It sits along RT.37 on land owned by J.D.'s younger brother, Ron.

Just like the OJ Simpson murders, you hear the media say Nicole Simpson but rarely did they mention the name Ronald Goldman. They always referred to him as "her friend".

Just like when President Reagan got shot, you hear his name and the name of James Brady and sometimes Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy, but seldom did you hear of Thomas Delahanty. If they did mention him it was only as "The D.C. Policeman".

Just like 9-11. The media talks mostly about the victims of the World Trade Center, sometimes they will mention the Pentagon victims, but rarely the victims of the 3rd plane that crashed into a Shanksville, PA. farm field. The actions of these people helped save either the U.S. Capitol or The White House. They knew what was happening because when their plane was stormed by the terrorist and diverted and was heading towards the Nations Capital, they had time to call home and that is when they found out what was going on. They were heroes. They took matters into their own hands, stormed the terrorists and saved countless lives and devastating destruction.

Well the same for J.D. Tippit. You hear all about Pres. John F. Kennedy and Gov. John Connally who was also shot in the limousine and Lee Harvey Oswald but rarely J.D. Tippit. So I am going to tell you about him with the help of what I have read.

J.D. Tippit was born in 1924 near Annona, TX. The ranch we were at this weekend was only a few miles away Annona, TX. It is in Red River County and the population there is about 12,000. It is one of  the poorest counties in Texas and very rural.

J.D.'s initials never stood for anything, it was his actual name. He grew up on the farms that his parents rented around Clarksville. They grew cotton and he plowed fields with horses and mules.

He enlisted in the army and became a paratropper. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his combat duties. He was honorably discharged and married his high school sweetheart Marie in 1946.

He took his new bride and headed to Dallas to find work. After several years of working jobs, his friend joined the Dallas Police Dept. and so did J.D. in 1952. His badge number was #848. He became a well liked and respected police officer having been awarded 2 accommodations in his 11 years on the department.

Nov. 22, 1963-After President Kennedy was shot, witness's gave a description of Oswald and a radio lookout was placed. J.D.'s beat was about 2 miles away from where Kennedy was assassinated. He was cruising a neighborhood and there was a man fitting the description. J.D. approached Oswald and Oswald fired four shots into Officer Tippit at point blank range 45 minutes after the President was shot.


This is his patrol car.


Dedication Ceremony for his monument was dedicated on Nov. 22, 2012, 49 years to the day of his death. About 200 people attended the ceremony including J.D.'s widow Marie; their children, Allen, Brenda and Curtis and his brothers and sisters along with many friends and relatives. Many police officers past and present including the two detectives Jim Leavelle and Elmer Boyd. Leavelle is now 94 years old and can be seen in the widely distributed photo that shows him escorting Oswald through the basement of Dallas Police Hdqtrs. He was the one in the light colored suit and matching hat. Leavelle served in the U.S. Navy and was on board the USS Whitney when it was attack at Pearl Harbor.

What was amazing was that J.D.'s father, in ill health and age 99 was able to attend. He passed away on 2006 at age 104.

Several years ago Ralph and I visited the JFK Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza where everything happened. No words could describe it. It was very emotional and I did not see one dry eye there.