Spring, Texas

We're in a beautiful RV resort in Spring, Texas; a suburb on the north side of Houston.

The trip down has been eventful this year. 

We'd planned to stop at the home of our friends Jake and Candy. This May they bought a ranch close to McKinney, Texas. The ranch has two parking spaces for Rvs, a very attractive option in our opinion. It would be a fun stay with our friends who would later meet us in the Rio Grande Valley for the month of January. We were saddened to learn  early in November that Jake had a heart attack. We spent an afternoon with Candy touring their ranch and the home they are redesigning, and had such a nice visit. Complications have lengthened Jake's stay in the hospital but he will be on his way to a rehabilitation facility soon. We'll stop at their home in March and see Jake when he's back up to speed.

We are staying at Rayford Crossing RV Resort, a place reccommended by friends Joe and Barb Stackman. We often go to places that friends have stayed in and enjoyed.

The entry

The office and general store

The pool is very nice

We're in an end lot, my favorite because the yard is larger.

Check out the Christmas decor on our street lamp!

There's a dog park here and of course Bella wants to visit every 20 minutes or so.

Just off the path I noticed a tree down with some unusual markings.

I was surprised to see evidence of beavers at Jake and Candy's ranch, and then found the same thing here! What's this about Texas and beavers?

Hallowe'en 2012

Mister Pumpkin Head

Mom had to pre-punch the holes in for Coen.

"The pirate's eye patch is upside down" says Mom.

One of the finished pumpkins.

My daughter certainly has a lot of my characteristics.

The Burkes are known in the neighborhood for their carved pumpkins.

One more from Jeff and Amber's house.

And one a friend brought over. 

Amber and Jeff live in wonderful area for Hallowe'en. The homes in their neighborhood are largely owned by young adults with children, and the streets fill with kids shortly before dark. Coen's girlfriend Zoey brings her parents over too.

Every year they hand out candy to 600 - 800 kids.

YEEEEHAWWW -Cowboy Coen!

Be sure to notice the lasso. It was a very important part of the costume in Coen's opinion.

Coen's "mean" look

He and Zoey had a great night and scored lots of candy, but they had more fun handing out treats after they got back to the house.

Just starting out for the evening.
I'm in the background, waiting to hand out treats for roaming goblins.

Coen and his cowgirl Zoey.

'Til next year!

Protecting the Plants

We're in Kansas, and it froze last night!

YES! FROZE!!

I don't remember the last time we experienced freezing weather but it may have been spring of 2010, when we left Texas too early.

It was clear I'd have to bring the plants in or suffer the lack of fresh mint for my mojitos. Well, of course I brought the plants in - we don't live like savages you know!!!

I watered the plants outside and waited half an hour. I then tilted the pots to let the excess water drain out. I got a plastic tablecloth, folded it to the right size and placed it carefully over the carpet. We didn't want to make a mess, did we?

My mint plants had a tough time with the heat this summer but have recovered nicely. I do take good care of them as I do love me those mojitos! As you can see they're in good shape.

Now let's zoom out a little so you can get a better look.

The little planter on the right shaped like a cat is filled with rose moss.

A pleasant plant but not important to mojitos.

That's a good thing!

Turns out the cats love rose moss. There was some interest early in the evening that we found entertaining. After we went to bed the carnage began. It must have been a glorious time, because the damage was extreme.

The forecast tonight is below freezing again. The plants will spend the night inside. 

Yes, the cats will too.

Coen And Grandma

We're in Kansas City, home of my grandson and, luckily, a location for Chuck E. Cheese Pizza. For those of you unfamiliar to the place (and that would be people who've lived on another planet for the last 35 years) Chuck E. Cheese Pizza is like Las Vegas for preschoolers. The place is filled with coin operated rides and games. Rock music re-worded for kids blasts while animal robots dance. Some poor employee dressed as a huge mouse wanders through. The noise level is indescribable.

Of course Coen loves the place so we're there!

As soon as you feed in the coin this thing begins to bark. Shove the plunger down and feed the dog.

 

This is really pretty cool. It's a ride simulator where the seat rocks and vibrates to the action on the screen.

Above the ride a TV shows their reaction.

Coen and I had a great time and I learned a valuable lesson.....

Make sure your camera batteries are charged if you want photos :(

Lord of the Rings

If there's an official name for this thing I don't know it, but it's the ring you remove when you open a  plastic bottle of milk or water.  Winston Merlot loves them.

Winston is the feral cat who lives with us, and he doesn't really understand toys. We've tried to get him interested in all kinds of feathery, cat nippy, yarn ball devises with no luck.

Even the laser pointer - AKA Red Dot Demon - has no appeal.

(We nearly killed Earl with the Dot. His first experience with the laser was hilarious to us and exhausting to him. He chased that dot until he was panting and never gave up. We had to put it away of it may have been fatal.)

At last Winston has found something too appealing to resist. The simple plastic ring is a mortal enemy to be stalked, thrown and killed. Our only problem is Winston's insistence to play with his toy near the floor vent.

Great sadness; the ring has fallen through the vent. The game is over until the next bottle arrives or John  removes the vent to retrieve the rings stored there.

Autumn At The Lake

After a horribly hot and dry summer cool weather has finally arrived.

We all knew the leaves would fall before they turned, but just look at the surprise!

From a Corp of Engineer RV park.

This is the calmest water I've seen all season.

There were LOTS of fishermen on the lake today, and why not? It was a perfect day. The above photo shows the only bridge crossing Pomme de Terre Lake.

My poor impatiens!

They're my favorite annual, but never again will I plant them here. Keeping them alive was like running a marathon with the watering can.

We'll come back next year, but the flowers will be a lot tougher!

F A T

F A T stands for Friends At Table. Every Thursday evening at 5:30 a group of us meets for dinner - usually at the restaurant shown above. I insist on calling it Kelly's. 

We were invited to join the group by Mike and Marcia, a couple we met last winter at Llano Grande. Camped two spaces down from us, they had a sign with their names and home town listed. The town was Hermitage Mo. and we soon realized we'd be spending summer 2 miles apart.

The manager, who handed John a Corona as we walked past the bar on our way to the table.

Yes, we've been here before.

The waitress who puts up with all of us and can still smile.

  

Right to left - Sally, Marcia and Sue. 

Tim, Joe, Joe's wife Karen and Sally.

Me with cake baker extraordinaire Linda.

Sally's husband Gary

John, Mike (Marcia's husband), Don (Sue's husband) and Tim (Linda's husband).

This evening we celebrated Joe's birthday.

A Jayhawk committing suicide in Missouri Tiger territory.

Note the baseball playoff game on the TV in the background. It's the Washington Nationals defeating the St Louis Cardinals.

Tim, the President of FAT, in a photo taken prior to the Card's loss. That's why he's smiling. In addition to being a Card's fan Tim is an avid follower of the Missouri Tigers. Since Tim was feeling so bad about the baseball game I hated to point out the dismal 0-3 record of the Tigers in SEC play, but I did it anyway. 

Tim says he won't miss me much this winter.