Updates from the road...

The Alamo

San Antonio River Walk

San Antonio River Walk

Campground in Fort Worth,Texas

Ken, Parker and Carson fishing at the campground



Indian Springs State Park in Georgia

Beautiful view

Our campsite

Paul and Lucas and the new frog bubble blower

Kirsten and Lucas

Out for pizza with "Mr. Destructo/Distracto"

 It never ceases to amaze me how busy we seem to be on our supposed “vacation”, but it appears obvious by how long ago it was that I updated this blog.  So many activities have kept us entertained and active, partly because the last two weeks we have been traveling more and visiting several relatives and friends.  We had new tires put on the motorhome before we left the campground resort in Texas, because we were told that even though we didn’t have many miles on them, their age made them dangerous to drive.  So, we painfully paid for our first major maintenance expense on our new “home” – almost $4000.  Ouch!  But, Ken feels much more confident now and says he can actually tell the difference.  I just hope someone else’s tires don’t explode and hit us on the highway now!  We left Drifters Resort and headed to San Antonio / New Braunfels to visit with Tom and Debbie Blake, full-timers from Muscatine,  on March 12^th.  They showed us around the area, and we had a yummy dinner at a German restaurant – schnitzel, spaetzle and red cabbage.  For this Stych / Ostermeier duo, it was perfect!  We also had fun visiting the famous San Antonio River Walk and saw the Alamo – something we have wanted to do for quite awhile.  On March 14^th, we drove to Dallas/Fort Worth to hang out with my nephew and his family, and my sister Karen who was visiting them, also.  We had never seen Jeff and Carrie’s beautiful home, and anyone who knows my sister will understand how I always get a good ab workout when we are with her, because she always makes me laugh so much.  The boys Parker and Carson (ages 6 & 4) enjoyed fishing at our campground, which was on a huge lake.  It had a large  playground, plus a beach with paddleboats and kayaks, and was very nice – we will definitely stay there again.   We left on St. Patrick’s Day, which was not a fun day for a drive – it was extremely windy, but we did travel for 520 miles to Meridian, Mississippi, where we spent the night in a WalMart parking lot.  We had Subway sandwiches for dinner, (from inside WalMart) and also a Subway breakfast.  Sometimes it's great not to have to make meals! The next day we arrived here at Indian Springs State Park in Jackson, Georgia, which is beautiful!  The best part is being with little Lucas, and of course, Kirsten and Paul.   We have spent the last week going back and forth between their home and here (which is a 45-minute drive each way), making dinners together, working on little “to-do” projects, visiting Lucas’ day care center (awesome!), shopping, and generally just enjoying our time with each other.  The weather has been perfect (although the pollen has been terrible – apparently 90 is ‘high’ and it is up to 2000 now, so allergy symptoms have been severe).  Today we are all going to hang out here and enjoy a grilled steak/baked potato dinner and a roaring campfire, then spend the night together.  (Our sofa pulls out into a bed, and we’ll have the playpen set up, so though it will be a bit “cozy”, we think it will be true 'camping out' for everyone.)  On Monday, we’ll move on to Red Bay, Alabama to tour the factory where our motorhome was made, and stay at their clients' campground.  So, in the meantime,  thanks for being patient enough to read through this, and hopefully the next update will be posted again soon. 

Still having fun down here...



Lunch was here one day

The bar at Alice Faye's



Pool where we "live"

Another pool view

Bridge over Corpus Christi Bay

On the ferry crossing Aransas Pass Bay

  It's hard to believe that yet another week has already flown by, and that if we had arrived here when we originally intended, we would be leaving tomorrow!  Due to our "detour" in Missouri, however, we extended our stay, though not for a full week as I had mentioned earlier. Now our revised plan is to leave here on Saturday for San Antonio to visit friends some of you from Muscatine may know - Tom and Debbie Blake.  They are long-term full-timers and have given us valuable information regarding this particular lifestyle.  We hope to visit the RiverWalk there on Sunday, and then aim for Dallas/Fort Worth.  But, more about that next time!  Since the last update, Ken was interviewed by Dwyer and Michaels of QuadCity radio fame.  Unfortunately, they gleaned some fodder for their satirical barbs from my Facebook page, even though I had refused their "friend" request.  However, guess that proves that you shouldn't put anything in writing that you don't want someone else to read, particularly in these days of rampant web-browsing.  Although we were actually quite pleased with how humorous the chat was, we are sorry if it offended anyone.  In the meantime, we have enjoyed quite a few of the attractions in this area. We drove along Fulton Beach Road and saw some gorgeous waterfront homes.  Then, we ate lunch at Alice Faye's on the Bay, a fun restaurant / bar with awesome views of the water. Stopped at an outdoor fruit/vegetable market and bought an 18 lb. bag of Texas ruby-red grapefruit and some chile-lemon pistachio nuts (those are for Ken, of course!).  It had only minimally rained twice during the night since we've been here, but Saturday morning a huge thunderstorm rolled through from 6 - 9 AM (the one that spawned those tornadoes in Louisiana).  When the sun finally came out, we drove into "Corpus" (no one here adds "Christi") and paid way too much to visit the extremely bleak RV dealer show at the convention center.  No gadgets/gizmos/freebies there.  To assuage that disappointment, we went back to Snoopy's Pier to have more of their yummy shrimp, fish & chips.  Oh, and of course, some cold bottles of Bud Light. We came back on one of the ferries that travels across Aransas Pass every day.  This week we also completed some mundane chores, since they are always inescapable, no matter where we 'live'.  We bathed Kallie, our black Lab, with warm water and a shower hose Ken hooked up outside (he's so ingenious!).  While I super-cleaned the inside of the camper, he vacuumed and re-organized the storage areas underneath  - who is surprised?  I paid the bills and reconciled the bank statements (yay for paperless finances), and we bought groceries and did laundry.  (Yes, Diana, yet again...).  The weather has been sunny and warm, but we haven't ventured into the pool as yet, though it is a perfect area in which to sit and read.  Hope you all are enjoying the first signs of spring wherever you are.  Stay tuned for the next update...