What were we thinking??

As we woke up this morning to -17 celcius or -31 with the wind chill, we wondered why we thought staying here for a month would not be too hard on us!! Brrrrr !! Jane has decided to hibernate until it warms up which may only be when we return to Texas.

We have enjoyed sharing Christmas with our family and friends. On Christmas day we hosted dinner for twelve and I think Jane had cooked a dinner for forty!! Good thing I love turkey and ham left-overs.. LOL Our great niece and nephew were the hit of the party.

During our time in Ottawa, Jane got the cookie baking monster out of her system, I got to a Senator's hockey game with Amy,

We also handled an emergency garage door repair, and spent some time with Jenn.

On Tuesday, Paul's sister Terry and her husband drove up from Montreal to have a belated Christmas lunch with us and Jenn.

Jenn also had some of her Jersey friends (who were visiting relatives in Montreal) drop by for lunch. It was fun to meet some of her friends here at home.

We are planning a small dinner with our friends on New Year's eve - so we won't be too wild, since Jenn flies home on New Year's Day.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year - and wishing we were already back in Texas... :-)

Christmas Wishes

On December 8, we flew home from Texas. Our plan is to celebrate the Christmas season with family and friends in Ottawa. Friday morning Paul was out bright and early buying new Christmas lights and then installing them on the front of the house.

Our next task was to decorate the tree so that by Saturday evening the neighbours could tell that we had returned home and would soon be celebrating Christmas.

After a month away enjoying the “low calorie Mexican food”, both Paul and I headed to our respective gyms to work out. The aquafit classes at the OAC are much more strenuous than those at Fun ‘N Sun so Jane certainly enjoyed using the steam room and hot tub to relax her tired muscles after class!!

Yesterday the house looked even more like Christmas as our friend Janet and Jane spent the day baking cookies and squares. The challenge now is to make sure they last until Christmas so that we can serve them to the family.

We want to wish all of you the joy and peace of this Christmas season and we hope our paths will cross early in 2012.

Yikes - December already!!

Wednesday evening we went over to the Oak Hill event center (just across from our park) for their live music and dancing. This week’s group played a lot of slow dances, so we spent quite a bit of time on the dance floor. During the draws, Jane won herself a cowgirl hat.

After the dance we ended up at C&C Wings with our friends Dave & Myrna – wings were good, but as our Ottawa friend Guy would say “pigeon wings not buffalo wings”.

Thursday was a chance to do some things around our rv home. Paul dug out the weeds and grass from our small garden area and did some gardening. Our Kralik rv sign now has a prominent new home.

The garden was full of white lava rocks, so the only solution was to add more.
Thursday night saw the return of Texas two-step dance classes for this camping season. It was fun to get back and find out all the things we had forgotten – how could this be, there are only two steps??? LOL

Friday was Wayne’s 68th birthday, so eight of us went to the Texas Roadhouse to celebrate the occasion. Instead of making Wayne wear a hat, here they made him ride a saddle while everyone sang.

We all had a fun time. Even after 2 margaritas, Wayne wouldn’t come to the weekly Fun N Sun Western dance, but Dave & Myrna joined us and we met Blair & Sharon and other friends there.

Saturday started off at 8am with a garage sale in our rec hall. We did manage to accumulate several small items. Once that was over we headed into Harlingen for their Jackson street market day – an outdoor six block long flea market. Saturday evening we headed over to Port Isabel for the annual Christmas lighted boat parade.

Although the parade was small, the entrants really did a nice job decorating. After the parade, Dave & Myrna, Mitch & Connie, Jane & I went over to Pelican Station for an excellent seafood dinner.

Sunday after church and breakfast at one of the local Mexican restaurants, we headed to the malls for some last minute Christmas shopping - since we are starting to think about heading home this Thursday. The evening ended with the weekly ice cream social and live entertainment at the rec hall. The show was Aloha in Texas - the Hawaiian entertainers were fabulous and the audience participants did a great job (Myrna & Jane may even sign up for hula lessons after their stage debut).

Tuesday evening we went to the Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum for their "Christmas at the Museum" open house. The theme was Toys of yesteryear and magical Christmas Trees which could be viewed while enjoying hors d'oeuvres, desserts, wine and champagne. We went with nine of our friends and it was an enjoyable way to celebrate the lead up to this holiday season.

Today is our last full day in Texas. Tomorrow morning we fly home to Ottawa for the Christmas season - so today will be spent getting the RV ready to sit here in the warm sun while we go north to enjoy (?) the cold north!! Although we are looking forward to seeing family and friends - the Texas sun will be drawing us back.

Can't wait to be back here in January.

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Thanksgiving day, Jane finally got up enough courage to try out her new bike. It did not take long for her to get used to the three wheeler – and we enjoyed a nice ride all around the park. The bike is a real hit – courtesy of our neighbor John Luxton and his bike supply service. John has supplied Paul with a bike for the last three years.

We got together with friends (mostly Canadian) for Thanksgiving dinner. Myrna & Dave BBQ’ed the turkey and the rest of us provided all the accompaniments – starting with Happy Hour in the warm afternoon sun. The food was fantastic and we ended the meal with pudding and jello shooters around the portable campfire.

At ten p.m., John volunteered to drive the women over to Walmart for the Black Friday shopping extravaganza. The trip turned out to be a real bust as the store was overcrowded and they couldn`t find any of the advertised specials. The shoppers returned home empty-handed – but the diehards set out early Friday morning and Myrna returned with not one but two sewing machines!!!

Around 11 a.m., we made what we hoped would be a quick trip to Kohl`s but waited in line for 45 minutes to pay for our one purchase.

Friday afternoon (Nov 25th) we went over to the Valley Racetrack with our friends Myrna and Dave, Mitch and Connie for an afternoon of greyhound dog racing. We bet based on the names of the dogs and came out $1.40 poorer. Not bad for an afternoon of fun. After supper, we went to the Texas Country Dance and visited with Blair and Sharon who had arrived from Canada late the week before.

Saturday morning we were up early to take a historic walking tour of downtown Harlingen. From Mike, the owner of the Java Café, we learned about the frontier days, mid-century boom times and modern Harlingen. We enjoyed seeing the murals painted on the outside of buildings as well as in the Capital One Bank building.

The most notable mural is a tribute to Bill Haley (and the Comets) who moved to Harlingen in 1976 and died there in February 1981. A reporter from the Valley Morning Star joined the tour and not only quoted Marg in his article but included a photo of her. After two hours of walking, we appreciated a nice lunch at the Java Café.
For more info on our walk click on :
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/articles

After supper, Dave and Myrna; John and Marg joined us for a free outdoor music festival commemorating the Centennial of the city of San Benito. The weather didn`t exactly cooperate – yes we got rained on and almost blown away by the Texas winds but the music was good and we had fun.

Tuesday night (Nov 29) we went over to the Valley Baptist Medical complex for their annual “Lights for Life” Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Two local school choirs sang Christmas carols, Santa made an arrival in a red convertible – in all a nice ceremony but still somewhat strange as we were dressed in our shorts and sandals.

Christmas Decorations in 90 degree weather seems weird!

As we drove through downtown San Benito (albeit a very small downtown) this afternoon, we noticed the town had put up the Christmas decorations on the city poles and lamposts. Santa, the angels, golden bells and Christmas trees were shining in the bright 90 degree sunshine. So strange, and it's not even American Thanksgiving yet!!! Myrna and Dave are planning to BBQ a Thanksgiving turkey and the rest of us will bring the salads, vegetables and desserts.

Since our last blog update, have been quite busy. We went to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival Trade Show (we passed on the seminars and other outings), a Mexican Craft Fair at the historical museum, shopping at the Outlet mall, attended our Church festival, our Sunday ice cream social, started back at our computer club, stretch & flex class, weekly golf and even took a two hour Shuffle Board lesson. We had no clue the shuffleboarding was so complex! Our teacher suggested that we try attending the men's or ladies' events but we definitely need practice and a few more lessons before we venture on the courts with people we don't know. We also made it to the Oak Hill dance club on Wednesday evening where they had a live band and $2.00 Margueritas

plus we have been to two Friday night Texas country dances at the Fun N Sun dance hall.

In between all the fun stuff, Paul finished repairing the damage to our Fifth Wheel that was caused by the steel belt that separated from the tire. He bought a second new tire, so one side is now outfitted with new rubber - other side will be done in Jan/Feb. Today Jane took the AARP Driver Safety training program - so look out San Benito she is ready to cruise.

Paul built a shelter for his BBQ over the last week - and tested it out today in the wind. The wind gusts are strong enough today to shake our trailer (so the awning is still safely rolled up and attached to the trailer).

The last ten days have just flown by so quickly. More of our friends are arriving daily, but the park is still fairly empty with only 494 sites occupied so far. Our street is fairly well populated, so it looks normal but the other side of the park is still deserted.

Early in the week, we plan to go back to the Outlet mall because there is no way we want to be there on Black Friday. We also hope to get to Mexico for Tequila and the Donna Flea market so Jane can look at bathing suits.

Take care - from Sunny Texas.

90+ degrees F is hot!!

Monday was a road trip! We drove from Shreveport into Texas down through Houston and finally headed south to the Rio Grande Valley. At this point the roads are straight with not much but farmland on both sides. So we pressed on and arrived at Fun N Sun at nine pm. We parked in the temporary / overflow area and wandered down to see our friends.

Yesterday we moved over to our permanent winter site and Paul worked to set up the trailer - while Jane went to the pool for her exercize class. The sun was shining in the 90+ degrees - but this is the hot weather we came for! Our first order of business after lunch was a trip to Time Warner Cable to get our internet service, so we are now "on-line".

Last night after supper at the local Texas Roadhouse (our first real supper in a few days) we joined our friends in the pool and hot tub before calling it a night. Ah, the retired rv life...... :-)

Yea for Shorts!!

We camped the two days at the Hollywood Casino RV park. It was nice to unhitch and do some exploring. We even made a run to Costco to stock the freezer and get a few miscellaneous items. No big winnings at the casinos, but we did enjoy a free buffet supper at the Fitz Casino and Paul came out $30 ahead - so we ran.

Sunday morning we travelled down thru Mississippi and into Louisiana. We stopped on the Natchez Trace for a picnic. What a nice calm route to drive. Then it was onto Shreveport / Boussier City where we found a Diamond Jack Casino RV park right off the highway. We enjoy these rv parks since they are usually easy to find, near highways, and most times have great amenities like flat concrete sites - which are a blessing after a long day on the road.

This morning we cross into north east Texas and start our trip south.

Midway on our journey to Fun N Sun

As scheduled, we left Ottawa early Wednesday morning and crossed into the USA at Ogdensburg ( a less stressful port when compared to the Thousand Island port of entry). The sun shone and we had a nice relaxing drive down I90 stopping at Concord, Ohio for the night. Jane chose the Baymont Inn & Suites (not RV park) to get out of the cold weather.

Thursday morning we were off past Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinati and into Kentucky. Around 4:30pm a steel belt decided to seperate from one of our trailer tires, causing minor damage to the side of our trailer as it left for the roadway.

Good Sam emergency road service responded within an hour to install the spare tire. Naturally the flat had to be on the road side! Even with a tow truck and it's flashing lights, not too many drivers switched lanes to get around. Glad to have Good Sam do the work. We were quickly on our way to Horse Cave, Kentucky for the night.

Friday morning we drove down to Bowling Green, KY and stopped at a BF Goodrich dealer to replace the damaged tire. With a new spare on board, we headed to the Tunica, Mississippi casino area and are parked at the Hollywood Casino RV Park. We plan to rest for two nights here, then continue south on Sunday.

The Ghosts and Goblins are at hand

In a few hours our doorbell will chime in all the neighborhood ghosts - actually our house looks pretty much like a haunted house with boxes at the doors and clothing hung up ready to move into the trailer.

Tomorrow morning Paul will drive out to the lake to hitch up the trailer and bring it home. We will spend the afternoon emptying the house and loading the trailer for our journey. Wednesday morning our plan is to hit the road with Tunica, Mississippi being our mid trip resting spot.

See you on the road - wherever we get wi-fi...

Cruising with Carnival Magic

After our trip to the “Soo” we returned to our seasonal campsite at McGowan Lake. Labour Day weekend featured the annual “trick or treat” costumed children going from site to site. This weekend was followed by our “Beers of the World” pot luck weekend. By mid-September we winterized our trailer – as we were preparing to leave on our next adventure.

On September 22nd we boarded an Air France plane for Barcelona Spain – the gateway to our 12 day Mediterranean cruise aboard the Carnival Magic – their biggest and newest ship! We joined ten of our friends on this adventure.

Our first port (Sept 26th) was Marseilles, France – where we toured the old city and enjoyed lunch overlooking the port.

Next stop (Sept 27th) was Savona, Italy –where we took a ship excursion into the city of Genoa.

Rome was the next port on Sept 28th. We even got within 15 feet of the pope during his weekly tour of the square. What a treat.

Naples, Italy was our stop on Sept 29th. Here we had hired a private tour driver and got an inspiring view of the Amalfi coast. This is definitely 6-49 country. The scenery was incredible. Our last stop of the day was in Pompeii. What a feeling to be walking in the excavated city.

Finally we got a day at sea – no tours! This was our first formal dinner evening and we all got dressed to the nines.

Dubrovnik, Croatia was our stop on Oct 1st. What a fascinating walled city. A real step back in time.

After this we went back to Italy and stopped two days in Venice. A beautiful city but totally overrun by tourists. Not the city I remembered from 30 years ago.

October 5th saw us stopping in Sicily. We took another ship excursion “Following in the Godfather’s footsteps”. This brought us to two villages where scenes from the Godfather were filmed back in the 1970’s. Not much has changed since then.

After another day at sea, we returned to Barcelona on Oct 7th and began our journey back to Ottawa. This cruise was a memorable trip!

Sault Ste Marie Titanium Rally - August 2011

In the middle of our busy summer, we decided to pull up stakes and join 28 fellow Titanium owners in scenic northern Ontario. So we hitched up on Monday Aug 15th, and headed west on our beautiful TransCanada highway – an oxymoron if there ever was one!! The trailer survived the trip and we stopped the first night in Sudbury – where we met our friends Wayne & Carolyn (our Texas neighbors) for dinner.

We had a great visit with them. When we returned to our campground we found that we were parked next to our good friends Doug and Sue

– and that Tony & Sharon, Bill & Margaret, and John & Carol had also stopped for the night at Carol’s Campground. Our mini-rally had begun!

Next day we all headed to the ” Soo “ and arrived at the Sault Ste Marie KOA – a really nice campground. Our site opened onto the campfire gathering ground – so we really had a large site. It was a beautiful warm day – so we took advantage of the heated pool to relax our sore muscles.

Wednesday was the official check-in day, so it was fun to watch the Titaniums roll in one after the other. By late afternoon, the area was full of rigs and our official ‘meet and greet’ happy hour started.

An evening orientation session was held at the campfire and a local historian gave us a short presentation on the history of Sault Ste Marie.

Thursday morning we all truck pooled into downtown for a tour of the Ermatinger and Clergue Blockhouse Historical Site – followed by a tour of the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center (where we also had lunch served amongst the displays).

Later in the afternoon we moved over to the Essar Steel plant where we watched steel being made into large rolls. Very interesting and very hot!! A cool swim back at the KOA was in order. That evening, the campground owners hosted a wine & cheese party for the group. What a busy day!

Friday morning (at 7am – is this a vacation?) – the trucks all lined up and we headed to the Algoma train station where we boarded the Agawa Canyon Tour. It is a four hour trip each way, with a 1 ½ hour stop at the canyon. Breakfast and lunch were served on the train’s dining car and the scenery was spectacular (even if the seats were painful).

We managed to walk to several of the waterfalls and were heading back to the train just as the black clouds rolled in. We were among the lucky ones who did not get wet but others decided new, dry Agawa Canyon t-shirt would make the return trip more pleasant. On our way home we stopped to pick up some food which we BBQ’ed. We had a nice dinner with Doug & Sue – in our trailer since another thunderstorm cancelled all outside activities.