Our RV Adventures

First off, to recap yesterday, we started off with lunch at the Texas Tea Room with Landon’s other grandparents, Lendell and Sonja.

And, as usual, Landon charmed everyone in the place with his big blue eyes.

Brandi and Lowell left early Friday morning for a long weekend in Colorado, so Lendell and Sonja had driven down from Oklahoma to Landon-sit for the weekend. We couldn’t do it since we were leaving the next day.

Of course, the fact that it was –29 in Oklahoma a few days ago didn’t hurt either.

Reluctantly leaving Landon, Sonja and Lendell, Jan and I headed over to Wal-Mart to stock up for our upcoming travels. Next, we went by a locksmith to get some keys made, before heading over to a client’s office to pick up a final check (always fun).

Finally it was time to head home and start packing to leave tomorrow. Since it was really nice outside I spent the rest of the afternoon working around the rig, packing the toad, and tidying up the site.

At 5pm we drove up to T-Bone Tom’s for our last dinner in Houston. I got a order of Armadillo Eggs, but since I also got a steak, I was only able to eat 1 egg of the 4. These things are Big. They’re made by slicing open a large jalapeno, stuffing it with chopped BBQ Brisket, battering it in 3 different coatings, and then deep-frying them.

Delicious! And leftovers, too.

After dinner we drove over to say goodbye to Chris and Linda. Of course, being Friday night, Miss Piper was missing in action. But we had said goodbye to her on Tuesday night, anyway.

Getting home about 8 we continued to put away stuff and get set up to travel. When you’ve been parked for 5 months you spend a lot of time trying to remember where everything goes.

The last time we were in one place this long was the 5 months we spent in Alaska in 2008. Normally we’re only in Houston for two months or so, but Master Landon’s arrival changed things this year.

I finally got to bed a little after midnight, early for me, but I wanted to get up around 7, 7:30 or so.

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Today . . .

I did manage to get up about 7:30, leaving Jan to sleep for awhile longer. It was 27 degrees outside, and everything was covered in a light frost. We even had an icicle.

I started by packing away the sat dish, and stowing our solar lights that line the driveway.

Then about 8 I went inside to gently awaken Jan by putting my ice-cold hands on her feet that were sticking out from under the covers.

I did say ‘gently’, didn’t I.

I told Jan I thought either all the wet weather we had the last month or so had shrunk the coach, or we bought too much new stuff.

Finally, about 10am Eldy and Jeannie came over to say goodbye. They’ll be here a couple of more weeks before we’ll see them again at the Gypsy Rally in Yuma the first part of March.

We pulled out of Galveston Bay RV Park, our home for the last 5 months, about 10:30, with Jan following me in the toad.

8.4 miles later we made our first stop . . . at Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson. It’s been our ritual for 4 years now that we always stop here for lunch before we hit the road. We really need that one last bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup.

It also makes a convenient place to hookup the toad and check things out.

While we were eating lunch, our daughter Brandi called from Colorado. She said that they were having a great time, and that Lowell had won $1300 playing blackjack at the casino. Of course Brandi had lost $300 on the slots, but hey, they’re still up $1000!

She had earlier sent this photo from Colorado. Beautiful country!

We got back on the road about noon and made our next stop at the Buc-ee’s in Luling about 3:30 to get coffee and also some pastries to take to Gina.

We got to the park a little before 5, got set up and checked in with our friend Gina, who we are visiting here.. She said she’d already had a sandwich, and wasn’t feeling well anyway, so she didn’t want to go out to eat.

So we said we’d see her tomorrow, and about 6, Jan and I headed over to the Italian Garden Restaurant right down the street. Always great.

Getting home about 7:30 I set up the sat dish and we settled in for the night.

Another cold one at about 29 degrees.

And, of course, more tomorrow.

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Thought for the Day:

The problem with the Internet, you’re never sure of the accuracy of the quotes. ~ Abraham Lincoln, 1866

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A lot going on today trying to get ready to leave here tomorrow morning.

But a lot still left to do.

So no real blog post today. But here’s the next volume in the continuing saga of our visit to Newfoundland in 2009.

I will try to catch up with what went on today in tomorrow’s blog.

More then . . .

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Thought for the Day:

TEAMWORK means never having to take all the blame yourself.

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Ferry, Ferry Bad…

Posted on September 9, 2009

Today is our day to catch the ferry back to North Sydney,  NS,  and the 30 mile drive back to our coach & cats in Louisbourg.

And we had another great view out our hotel window.

We’re supposed to be at the ferry by 10 am for a 11:30 departure so we head down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast about 8:30.  While we were eating we overheard someone saying the ferry was running late,  about 6 hours late.

It should have been here at 7:00 am to get unloaded and ready for us to start loading at 10 and sailing at 11:30.  But it wouldn’t be here until 1 pm with our departure scheduled for 3:30 pm.

We’ll see.

Since it was bright and sunny today,  we decided to kill time by taking the 30 mile drive out to Rose Blanche Lighthouse a ways down the coast.  We didn’t do it yesterday afternoon because it was so foggy.

The drive was really something.

After driving out to the lighthouse,  we didn’t actually SEE the lighthouse.  Jan didn’t want to make the long walk up the hill,  and I didn’t want to pay the $5 admission to make the long walk up the hill to SEE the lighthouse.

But the drive was worth the trip,  and it didn’t cost me $5.

We got back to the hotel and checked out about 11:30,  and after waiting about an hour we saw our ship,  the Atlantic Vision,  come steaming in.  She maneuvered into the harbor and then turned around and backed in, smooth as can be.  Bow thrusters are amazing.

So now our truck is parked in the boarding line and Jan and I are sitting in the terminal lounge waiting to board…and waiting and waiting…

FLASH… We just heard over the PA that boarding will now start at 3:30 pm and the ship will depart as soon as it’s loaded.  This will probably take at least an hour. It’s now 2:45 pm.  We’ll see.

Well,  they called us to our vehicles about 3:30 and we started actually boarding about 3:45 pm.  By 4:00 pm we were setting in the lounge aboard ship.  And about 4:20 we finally left the dock.  This ship is very nicely decorated,  almost like a cruise ship.  Which I guess it really is,  only for shorter cruises.

AV Interior

The Captain came on the PA and said we would be traveling at full speed (27 knots) to try and make up some of the lost time.  Yeah,  like the extra 5 knots is going to make up for the fact that we are running 5 hours behind schedule.

Well, Bummer!  I’ve just found out that I’m Internetless and CellPhoneless.

Although this ship is 15 years newer than the one we came over on,  and has electrical plugs everywhere,  it has no Internet access or cell phone service.  It has been down all summer since the satellite uplink/downlink is broken.

This trip just keeps getting better.  A little before 6:30 pm Jan and I went down to the restaurant to try out the great buffet we had heard about.  Where we discovered that they were closing because they had run out of food!

I guess it was really great…for some people.

So it’s off to the snack bar for cold sandwiches.  Oh boy!

It’s now about 7:15 pm.  The Captain just came on the PA and said we will be docking in about an hour.  Let’s hope so.

8:15 pm.  Well, we’re kind of here.  But it seems like they’re having trouble getting docked.  They keep starting and stopping and moving around.

9:00 pm.  They just called us to our vehicles so there’s a mad rush for the stairs and elevators.

And at 9:15 pm we finally moved off the ship.  At least the truck started this time!

Got home a little after 10 pm.  Cats were OK.  Rig is OK.

Tomorrow we have a long 300 mile trip to Halifax,  NS

Long day.  Going to bed

More tomorrow…

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